It's been a while
by katyn1
Summary: Far into the future of mankind, a self designed saviour of mankind returns to finish what he started. R&R.
1. Prologue

This is a Warhammer 40k and Evangelion crossover.

No I don't own Evangelion and I don't own Games Workshop or anything that they produce. Hey you think I do?

* * *

It is the 31st millenia. The galaxy is at war and armies of the Imperium have pushed forth and conquered much of the galaxy, pushing back any foe in their way. No system in the galaxy has escaped the ravages of this never-ending war. None but for one, the home system of mankind itself. Holy Terra has never felt the wrath of intergalactic warfare, never suffered from it. 

Until now…

* * *

Horus stared out of his barge at Terra. His men were but one step away from defeating the emperor's last stronghold. Only a few more days and the whole Imperium, no the whole galaxy would be his. And yet… What if the words of that old man were true? His men had indeed discovered the facility he had talked about as well as the 'titans' located inside. He also knew that by the time he finally took Terra thecombined space wolves and dark angelsarmies would have arrived and weakened as his men were, they would have a tough time holding back the two chapters. If he could get those 'Titans' then he would be able to conquer the rest of Terra in a day and defeat thereinforcements with no difficulty whatsoever. Horus slowly walked back to his throne and sat down. He had been the warmaster of the false Imperium of mankind for a long time and during that time he had conquered much of the galaxy. True he had lost a few battles but what did it matter in the grand scheme of things? One small battle did not dictate the fate of the galaxy after all. 

However this small decision did. Horus sighed as he reached his decision.

"Captain?"

"Yes Warmaster Horus?"

"Send a message to the Special Forces to begin preparations to teleport the biomechanical constructs up to the barge. That naturally means that we need to lower our shields so make sure you do. Oh and tell the Special Forces to clear all evidence that such a place ever existed in the first place. That will be all."

"Roger that Warmaster, will do."

* * *

"Why are we, the proud Sons of Horus, doing this menial labour? This is the sort of thing the Iron warriors should be doing." 

"Will you shut your trap for crying out loud? At this rate even the gods will hear you."

Deep underground in an old facility long abandoned by mankind until recently, a squad of Chaos marines carried a nuclear warhead, one of the few still in existence in the whole imperium, towards the control centre of the complex. Their mission was simple, take out the whole facility and leave nothing what so ever. The facility was huge however and the only way to take out in one go was to plant the nuke in the middle of the facility where the control centre was.

The other part of the mission was to protect the cultist assigned to set and detonate the nuclear device once they were clear of the area. Not that the marines really cared about this part. As far as they were concerned the cultist was a hindrance to the mission even if they did need him to blow the nuke. The marines had ignored him for the whole duration they had been in the facility and acted as though he didn't even exist. The Aspiring champion assigned to the squad had actually walked straight over the cultist at one point and trampled him into the metal floor without so much as breaking step.

The cultist on his part was doing the best to stay out of the way of the marines. Instead he devoted his time to studying the facility as they went deeper into it. It seemed as though the place was designed to be a fortress. Every ten metres there would be a reinforced door just waiting to be shut to lock down intruders or, inadvertently, crush them in its grip. It took quite a lot of firepower to knock down the doors and the marines had already used up all their meltabombs and krak grenades doing this. Thankfully they had encountered no more doors.

Instead they began encountering skeletons.

It had been a rather surprising discovery. They had only been fighting on Terra for a few weeks thus far and that was surely not enough time for a corpse to be rid of all its flesh. The cultist drew two conclusions. Either A. the skeletons must have been here for much longer, at least a few years, or B. some other Chaos marines had been carrying some weapon which caused the flesh to rot at an advanced rate. The problem with A. was that there had obviously been no fighting on Terra for a long time until now. The last time there had been a war on which blood was shed on Terra was many millennia ago, during the age of strife. It was highly doubtful that a facility of this size would have gone un-noticed by the Imperium for this long. Option B. wasn't that great either. Only the 'plague marines' had the weaponry to create such an effect on the human body and they were fighting on the other side of Terra.

The cultist broke his stream of thoughts as he and the Marines neared an elevator.

"Hurry up and get that elevator to this floor we haven't got all day", grunted the champion. Even as the Marine nearest the elevator reached for the 'down button' the elevator began moving of its own accord. As one the marines pulled out their bolters and plasma gun and pointed them at the elevator doors. The champion strode to the front pulling out his chainsword as he walked forward. Just for the fun of it, he sliced a skeleton apart watching the bones scatter everywhere. Smiling he prepared to swing his sword as soon as the doors opened, ready to cut of the head of whoever came out of there. The elevator was only 2 floors away now.

"Steady men…." Whispered the champion. A second later the doors opened with a soft 'ping'. Quickly, with the experience of a hundred years of continuos fighting, the champion swung his chainsword down at perfect head height.

Only to cut into air.

The only occupant in the elevator was a small mechanical bug. It looked up at the Marines with something akin to curiosity. The champion found himself staring mesmerised into its single green eye. The bug suddenly scuttled out of the elevator and down the corridor out of sight.

_What the hell? _was the thought of everyone in the party. The first to recover was the champion. Quickly kicking everyone in the shin to refocus them on the situation (the cultist screamed as his leg was smashed to pieces then quickly rehealed thanks to the powers of chaos) then split the party into two groups. Obviously the elevator was too small for ten fully laden chaos marines and a nuclear weapon so they would have to split into two groups, one group heading down first to clear the way while the other five marines would bring down the device once the all clear was given. (The champion 'conveniently' forgot about the cultist.) Four marines with bolters and the champion quickly hopped aboard the elevator along with the cultist. The other 5 marines quickly took up defensive positions. After they heard the doors close and they were sure the elevator was a decent distance away, the marines relaxed. As far as they were concerned, this facility had no other occupants apart from themselves and that damn bug. Their champion might think differently but he wasn't there was he?

On the elevator the cultist was finding himself squashed into one corner of the elevator. It had never been designed to accommodate for 5 marines. _That probably means this facility dates back before even the false emperor!_ He didn't have much chance to think past that as the whole elevator suddenly shook.

"What was that?", shouted the cultist. The marines ignored him. They merely raised their bolters and calmly proceeded to shoot apart half the roof of the elevator. Funnily enough there was nothing on the elevator.

"That's strange….", mumbled a marine. Next second a pair of power armour boots slammed into the top of the elevator roof and another 3 pairs quickly joined them as well as a nuclear device. _4 pairs of feet?_ "Where's Epididymitis?"

"He got taken out sir. A bunch of skeletons, about 6, got up and started shooting at us. They were firing some weird green stuff at us. It pulled apart his armour and blasted a hole straight through him.". _Damn it, this was supposed to be a walk through the park._ The Champion though for a moment then asked," Did you at least pick up his plasma gun?" The Chaos marine replied by waving said gun about.

Catching everyone by surprise the elevator reached the correct floor and opened the doors. Then it let a huge groan as the combined weight of the nine marines, the cultist and nuclear bomb threatened to tear it off its railings. The party quickly bailed out and with a silent order from the champion fired their weapons into the elevator. With a final groan the remains of the elevator dropped into the darkness. The marines realising the urgency of the situation picked up the nuclear bomb and ran for the command centre, leaving the cultist to run after them.

They hadn't gotten far when they reached a crossroad only to find the blast doors had shut off all the corridors except for the one they came in. Even as they turned around the blast door of the corridor they had just come from closed itself with surprising speed.

"Defensive positions, two men to each corridor, I'll stay in the centre with the plasma gun to lend support where necessary. Cultist arm the bomb. Now.", ordered the champion. The marines quickly assumed positions, one of them giving the champion the plasma gun first before unslinging his own weapon. In seconds all the marines were in place and the nuclear bomb was set.

Silence.

It stayed silent even as a figure floated out of the floor. The figure was skeleton to say the least but it would be more accurate to describe as spectre with deadly claws and no legs. Instead it floated around and even as the marines observed this more of its kind floated out all around them.

"OPEN FIRE!", screamed the champion and in response eight bolters began firing. The spectres began floating towards them unaffected by the numerous bullets flying towards them. The bullets seemed to just pass straight through their targets. The champion hefted his plasma gun and fired what would have been a perfect headshot if the plasma had not passed straight the spectre's body. The cultist on the other hand was far too petrified to even move let alone use his laspistol. Without warning a spectre floated up from straight underneath the champion seeking to impale him. The champion fortunately had excellent reflexes and dodged out of the way quickly. Unfortunately the spectre's claws hit the plasma gun instead. Instantaneously the plasma gun exploded sending fragments into everyone and killing the champion as well as the spectre.

The marines drew their chainswords, axes, knives or whatever close combat weapon they had and charged screaming into close combat. By now it was clear to everyone that there was no way the marines could possibly win.

"WE'RE SURROUNDED, DETONATE THE NUKE, BLOW IT!"

The cultist understandably hesitated. No-one willingly takes their own life unless they're mad. The cultist suddenly felt something bump against his feet. Looking down in horror he saw the spectre that had been blown apart earlier steadily reforming its body. Metal droplets made their way back up the body to reform the grinning face. _The spectre is regenerating itself_ thought the cultist in awe. Then the spectre finished regenerating. Taking a quick look around for potential targets it found the cultist. Even as the claws reached for him, the cultist hit the detonate button.

* * *

Even from the barge in space the explosion could be seen. The Emperor of the Imperium of mankind threw another psychic wave at Horus before pausing momentarily to watch the explosion. Then he returned to the task at hand and continued his monumental battle with the warmaster. A battle that would decide the fate of a galaxy. 

Author's notes: Ok I'm expecting some flames and complaints about the WH40k storyline since I'm not that big on the Imperium's history being a dedicated necron player.

For those people who don't play Warhammer 40,000 heres a quick and brief history of the imperium until the above events.

The Emperor of mankind was basically a demi-god for all intents and purposes. He created the 20 original space marine chapters and their primarchs fromtinkering with DNA and genetic implantsand they went around the galaxy beating the socks off anyone who got in the way. Sometime during the 30th millennia, half of the chapters revolted against the Imperium and took up the force with Horus instead. Horus is a primarch by the way.

The chapters, the Imperial guardsmen who joined them in the name of chaos and anyone else who liked the chaos gods or was fed up with the Imperium marched upon Terra. Just as Horus was about to conquer Terra, he let down the shields on his personal barge. (In the real storyline no-one knows why except perhaps Horus himself. It is general belief that Horus wanted to challenge the Emperor in hand to hand combat.). The Emperor took two primarchs and the best marines available and teleported straight onto Horus's barge. On Horus's barge, the Emperor and Horus engaged in single combat and, although the Emperor killed Horus, he was mortally wounded in return and was placed in the golden throne, a life support system that keeps him alive. (As a non-Imperium player I would like to point out that he's not technically alive… more like a few of his cells are).

By the way, don't expect meto update too often. I'm presently in my last year of high school and it's hell on the nerves.


	2. For the Imperium!

"All personnel prepare to exit warp. Repeat. All personnel prepare to exit warp. Estimated time until return to real space is 5 minutes"

"Yes Yes we know. By the emperor, these new fangled computer systems are annoying."

"You do realise it keeps us alive Sergeant?"

"That's what it's suppose to do. Not give me a migraine."

"Get used to it Sergeant Ikari, now strap down"

"Yes captain"

Sergeant Shinji Ikari turned to his seat and prepared for the resulting warp exit. His squad of storm troopers imitated his actions. Shinji never really liked exiting from the warp. It was an uncomfortable feeling exiting and he was always certain something was whispering to him as he entered or left the warp. His men never heard a thing but that did little to alleviate his fears.

Shinji had little to fear from any physical threat. As part of the 42nd Grunnam Rifles, he was well trained, as were all his men. They had fought in the wastes of Armageddon and had earned high honours there. As a result they were given carapace armor and Hellguns and were told to act well in their new job as storm troopers.

Now they were off to fight another Ork Waagh! Armageddon had cooled down by now and the High lords at Terra had decided to send them to a nearby system that was under threat by a Waagh that had just begun.

As Shinji strapped in for the ride, his second in command, Touji Suzuhara, noticed his relatively grim mood. This was a bad sign because his sergeant had the uncanny ability to realise when danger was approaching, even if it wasn't apparent to anyone else. While Shinji never noticed this ability, even refuting he had it at times; the rest of the squad often lived by it. It had saved many of their lives from a sudden ambush or trap.

Toji unlocked the safety mechanism on his hellgun and prepared for the worst.

* * *

In the command room, Admiral Misato Katsuragi stared into the titanium screen in front of her face and grumbled. Despite the fact she was a highly able and successful leader, she'd never gotten use to life on the ships. During her time as a civilian, she'd lead a wild life, enjoying herself with abandon, hanging out at all sorts of bars and social gatherings.

That had all changed about 15 years ago. When the invading Ork armies at Armageddon killed her father, she vowed to take revenge on the creatures and in particular, their leader, Warlord Ghazghskull Thraka. When she applied to the Imperial Fleet, it was discovered that her ancestor many years ago had fought during the First Armageddon war. Considering this to be a good omen, she was fast-tracked through the academy and was given an endeavour class light cruiser as her first command. Quickly proving herself against the Orks rather crude tactics, Misato was given the title of Admiral.

Now she was assigned to bring reinforcements to the besieged planets the Ork Waagh was attacking. She had at her disposal 3 battleships of the Apocalypse class and numerous other smaller craft. Misato's main concern however was the dozen odd troop ships behind her.

She knew that it was her duty to the Emperor to bring the various Imperial Guardsmen divisions to the planet and that nothing else mattered. Given that she was coming up against a space hulk, her force really was just a diversion in order to get the men through. Nonetheless, Misato intended to get out of the battle in one piece.

"This is the last warning. Please brace for warp exit."

Misato winced. She was a brave woman and had to be in her line of work but that also made her more volatile when things annoyed her. She was particularly volatile when she had a hangover.

"That does it. Can't listen to that voice any longer. Ensign turn that thing off!"

"I can't ma'am…"

Misato exploded, "WELL WHY NOT?" The ensign gulped and prayed for the emperor to spare him as he replied, "It was built in by the Tech-priests. Only they have the favour of the machine god to turn it off."

Misato looked like she would shoot everyone in sight. It wasn't the first time either. Her notoriety with alcohol was well known throughout the fleet. It was said that she could drown a titan with the amount of beer she drank. It was also said that she once rammed an Ork space hulk when she was hungover and got half the crew killed. Fortunately, she was in calmer spirits that day in the warp. She _only_ shot the speaker in the command room.

As one the massive fleet made the transition from warp space into real space.

"Open the shutters."

"Opening the shutters ma'am."

Misato had seen a lot of battles and had been ambushed more than once. As such she received the view of the enemy fleet quite calmly. The rest of the command crew did not.

Arrayed against them was a force at the very least 5 times their size. All classes of ships could be seen in the Ork fleet, ranging from fighters to battleships. The only thing missing was the Space Hulk itself.

The crew upon seeing the fleet began hurried prayers to the Emperor for victory, survival, or a chance to escape. Misato on the other hand just ordered her ships to charge straight into the enemies midst.

* * *

Back in the troop transport, Shinji realised something was up even before they could see out of the windows. The ship was shuddering and speeding up. Something was obviously wrong. The problem became immediately obvious when he saw the fleet. Touji also realised that they were obviously in deep trouble. This was another reason why Shinji hated space travel. If stuff started blowing up, he couldn't really do anything.

"All hands! Prepare to repel boarders! I repeat! All hands prepare to repel boarders at entry points gate 6, 7 and 9!"

Well…for the most part they couldn't. Shinji quickly assembled his men, gave them a quick prep speech, (Kill any enemy you see men.) and then moved off towards the nearest gate, number 9.

* * *

Misato knew at a glance that the kind of weapons these Orks had were barely powerful enough to put a dent into her battleship. Problem was the Orkish weapons would probably put a lot of holes in the transports.

"Admiral! Inbound boarding craft! They number at least 20 ships and it looks like they're heading for the transports!"

_Just brilliant_, thought Misato. She quickly turned her ship to allow the fighters she had onboard to exit as near as possible to the Orks boarding vessels. Despite the fact she had only 10 fighters in her ship, she could call upon the support of the rest of the fleet in order to destroy the boarders. Misato was about to give the order to send all fighters towards the inbound vessels when she noticed that there was a small V formation of gunships that had appeared out of nowhere. Smiling, she instead ordered the fighters to attack and strafe the enemy destroyer class equivalents.

* * *

Shinji was going through hell at the moment and while he wasn't injured he was sure to be hit sometime sooner or later. Problem was, the Orks didn't seem to want to come into the ship through the normal entrances. _No they just have to ram their ships into the hull and make a few new entrances_, grumbled Shinji. He and his squad had been almost at gate number 9 when there was a sudden explosion just behind them. A Ork boarding craft had rammed the transport and now Orks were pouring in through the gap.

"Die you greenskinned scum!" bellowed Touji as he snapped off another las shot at the horde of Orks, dropping one with a headshot. But for each Ork they killed another two took his place. At this rate Shinji's squad was going to be overwhelmed. "Men! Prepare to fall back! Prime grenades!" As one, his squad pulled a frag grenade out and launched it at the Orks. The explosion splattered blood all over the corridor, and yet the Orks still kept coming. Shinji wondered just how many Orks there were in the small ship.

"Clear gate……Space………….hawks inbound! Repeat……."

Shinji could barely here over the sound of the grenades exploding, hellguns and Ork bolters firing. Not to mention the Orks continual scream of 'Waagh!' As he and his squad reached a junction, Shinji had a quick look up and down the corridor only to see nothing. He made the quick assumption that all the other squads in the area had probably already jumped ship. _Cowards, may the Emperor smite them_. Shinji and his squad continued towards gate 8. Maybe someone there could help them. _Someone…more like some army.

* * *

_

"Eagles one, two and three, head towards that transport and help repel the Orks. Eagles four, five and six, take patrol duty. Intercept and destroy any other boarding craft."

"Understood brother. We are heading to our positions."

* * *

Shinji hurried down a corridor only to find it locked. A quick improvisation with a few grenades blasted the door open and the squad took off. Behind them, the Orks were slowly catching up. Frederick had managed to slow them down earlier on by shutting a door but the Orks were catching up now and the squad was still a good distance from the hanger. Shinji looked down the corridor. It was at least a hundred metres long and there was almost no way his men would be able to make it all the way to the end in one piece. There were side passages halfway down the corridor but judging by their flashing red lights, they were locked.

"Doesn't look good does it sir?" asked Touji as he stumbled slightly on a dead servitor. "If we make it to the end, then the drinks are on me."

"First we have to make it to the hanger alive Touji" and with that Shinji ran down the corridor. His plan was that they would halt at the doors in the corridor and make a short stand there and hopefully, with the use of their krak grenades, they would make an effective diversion that would allow them to sprint the rest of the distance.

They were only at the 30 metre mark however when the first Ork appeared and began firing at them. Shinji found this to be a fortunate thing. The Ork was obstructing the way for the rest of the Ork mob and quite frankly he and his men had little to worry about from a single Ork firing. Odds were he wouldn't hit and if he did hit the bullets would be duds. As such Shinji changed his plan from run to the halfway mark into run the whole Emperor blessed way. When the squad hit 60 metres, the Ork at the end was shoved out of the way by his mates and subsequently trampled. His mates carried much more specialised weaponry, each of their weapons having been upgraded somehow. For the most part, these Ork's guns fired bullets at a faster speed than a normal Ork gun. This particular breed of Ork was known as a Flash Git in Ork communities.

Shinji didn't care what or who they were and just kept running. The hail of fire decimated two of his men however and dropped screaming. _We aren't going to make it_, thought Shinji and frantically tried to come up with a plan on the run.

It wasn't necessary.

The locked doors in the middle of the corridor suddenly exploded in a hail of debris and one of the Emperor's finest charged out having rammed the door with his shoulder. The space marine was decked out in white and blue colour and his insignia identified him as one of the Blessed Griffons chapter. Spotting the Orks, he let out a roar and charged at them hefting his flamer up. The Orks didn't flinch but merely continued to fire. Big mistake. The space marine barely noticed the bullets flying around and let loose a jet of flame, which incinerated the Ork mob. Barely pausing the space marine charged around the corner, let loose with his flamer again and disappeared.

Shinji knew he should probably have thanked the Emperor or the space marine for saving them but the speed of which the marine had appeared, dispatched the Orks and then disappeared had taken but 10 seconds and his squad was just standing there mouths agape.

After a while Touji mumbled that they should probably move and the squad gladly walked the last 40 metres to the hanger.

Inside the hanger, it was utter chaos. The space marines had all charged towards hanger9 and that had left the Orks coming from hangers 6 and 7 to smash there way into hanger 8. Cries of 'Die humies!' and 'May the emperor crucify your soul Greenskin!' were ringing out all over the hanger as the Imperial Guardsmen desperately held back the Ork wave. Bodies of the dead were all ready littered around the hanger and many of the ships were ruined. The ships still intact were the 6 Thunderhawks the space marines had arrived in and about a dozen Valkyries, the Imperial guard standard drop ship.

Shinji realised that the transport was going to blow any minute and the best way to serve the emperor in his opinion was to live and fight another day. Charging across the hanger, he fired randomly at the Orks from his hip as he went for the nearest Valkyrie. Just as he reached it, it exploded as a rokkit smashed it into oblivion. The Orks had finally broken through the Imperial lines and were proceeding to smash everything apart.

"Defensive positions!" cried Shinji, and his squad quickly dived into the wreckage of the recently annihilated valkyrie and began returning fire on the Orks. A volley of Ork rokkits screamed by their heads as Shinji looked around for an escape route. The other Valkyries were still in one piece but getting to them was going to be a problem.

The solution arrived in the form of the marines as a whole bunch of them appeared and jumped straight into the fray. The Ork charge, disorganised as it was when the marines appeared, quickly fell into disarray and the Orks were quickly dispatched. Bolter shells flew randomly as the Marines blasted the Orks from point blank range. The Orks rapidly fell back the way they came. A mekboy quickly shut the doors to the other hangers the instant most of the Orks had evacuated. The rest of the Orks were cut to pieces from combined lasgun and bolter fire.The marines quickly headed for their Thunderhawks to prepare to escape the ship and Shinji moved towards the nearest Valkyrie. As he opened the hatch he declared,' I'll be flying and if we make it then don't thank me.'

* * *

Misato observed the stricken vessel. She could see the dropships in the hangers beginning to evacuate even from this distance. Knowing that there were barely enough dropships to get everyone on the ship out, she commended those who wouldn't make it to the emperor.

"Ma'am incoming transmission from the battle barge of the Blessed Griffons chapter."

"Patch it through"

A picture of a space marine, presumably a librarian by the staff he was wielding, appeared.

"Admiral, the rest of the defence forces in space are located on the smaller of this planet's two moons. It would be advisable for you to make a heading there as soon as possible."

"Understood. We thank you for your assistance."

The transmission was suddenly cut off as the command ship rocked violently. An Ork ship was racing towards them firing on the run.

"Fire a broadside into that ship!" Judging from the speed at which it was coming towards them, it was trying to ram them and hopefully do enough damage to disable them. Misato knew that she was in no way going to destroy the ship but she hoped to push it off course, or stop entirely through sheer force. With a single roar, the ship fired every cannon available.

At this close range, every shot hit head on and exploded in a fiery blossom. Surprisingly, the Ork ship exploded into a million pieces. Misato could only assume that she'd hit the magazine as she ordered the fleet to fall back towards the moon.

* * *

Shinji climbed into the seat of the Valkyrie and fired the engines. As the rest of the squad climbed into a seat and strapped themselves in, he heard a voice ring out in the hanger.

"All Imperial aircraft are to stay together. The Thunderhawks will fly defensive formations around you and protect you from Ork fighters."

_I sure hope they can. There are a lot of Orks out there._ In a few short moments, all the aircraft that were on the ship were airborne and heading for the planet with due haste. About 3 dozen Valkyries had survived and all the Thunderhawks were flying in a defensive circle. The numerous Ork raiding parties were also fleeing the ship even as it started drifting.

"Heads up!" shouted a voice on the radio. Shinji looked up and swerved out of the way of some wreckage. The ship recently blown out of the sky by Misato was now in their way of the planet. As Shinji swerved and dodged pieces of wreckage and Ork corpses, he noticed about a dozen Ork fighters swinging in after them. _This isn't going to be good,_ thought Shinji as the Orks started firing tracers at them.

* * *

Onboard the stricken transport, everyone was making hurried preparations to leave the ship, if you were an Ork that is. If you were a human you were probably dead or dying.

There was one human however who knew she had to get out.

An Ork raiding party on its way back to the ship they came in on never noticed the last one of their kind suddenly dying. Never noticed him being dragged into a nearby room. Never noticed him joining their ranks again.

* * *

Shinji swerved around a jagged piece of metal, the leftover of a massive shell, and a free-floating servitor before pulling sharply on the control stick to dodge the tracers being fired by the Ork fighter trailing him. The Thunderhawks had disappeared somewhere and the Valkyries had all split up the instant they entered the debris field to avoid collision. This left them highly exposed to the Ork fighters however.

"Where the hell are those space marines?", shouted someone across the radio.

"Who knows! Just don't get hit!"

"I got two bogeys and my tail! I'm not gonna…" Even as Shinji rounded what was left of the main body of the dead ship, a Valkyrie shot past him on fire and slammed into the wreckage instantly exploding. Shinji winced as he watched the explosion. _At least he distracted the Ork fighter. _The said Ork fighter had swerved away from the explosion and as a result lost them. Shinji quickly hit the gas and got out of the debris field as quickly as possible.

The other Valkyries were still being trailed by the persistent Orks. Tracer fire flied everywhere as the Imperial pilots desperately swerved, dodging both the Orks and the chaos around them. It was taking all the skill of the Imperial pilots to dodge the debris. Sometimes it wasn't enough. Two Valkyries barely clipped the debris as they evaded a long stream of tracers. They only hit about five centimetres of debris. But when you're flying at around 15 kilometres per second that debris is lethal. The two craft immediately began flying out of control, smashing into other debris and they also smashed into another Valkyrie. An Ork fighter fired into the mess destroying all three aircraft.

At this moment the Thunderhawks choose to reappear. Swinging in behind the Ork fighters, they began firing the 4 heavy bolters on the wings and nose at the alien vessels. Bolter shells are effectively bullets with explosive tips. As such they ripped apart most of the Ork's flimsy ships with ease. The fighter that had been trailing Shinji until recently chose to reappear at that instant and started blasting the rear of a Thunderhawk. While the Thunderhawk was unlikely to get shot down, it appeared the marines took offence to being surprised like this and having the thunderhawks paint job ruined. Theside hatch of the Thunderhawk opened and a marine holding a lascannon appeared. With one shot, a hole had been burned cleanly from one end of the fighter to the other. With the last enemy in the area gone, the Imperial ships exited the debris field and headed to the planet.

* * *

As the Ork assault boat docked with a Rok, the passengers ran out laughing and boasting about the fights and loot and whatever else they claimed to have done on their raid. One Ork remained silent though and slipped into the darkness. Grabbing a grot that was walking past, the Ork demanded directions to the engine room. The grot didn't know where it was but pointed in a direction anyway to get out of the vice like grip of the Ork's hands. Not that it helped him as the Ork pulled out a thin blade made out of a strange metal and cut the grot in half. Then the Ork lumbered off.

* * *

"Anyone know a good landing site?" Shinji asked everyone in general. After all, it's all very well to have survived a battle in space but if you can't find somewhere safe to land then the point is moot. Shinji didn't like the look of his fuel either. By his best calculations, he would only just make it to the planet. Most of the other Valkyries appeared to be having a similar problem to various degrees. The thunderhawks were loaded with fuel and had no such problem. If they wanted to they could've flown round the planet before landing.

"Imperial guardsmen, there is a nearby base presently being manned by the sisters of battle. It is advisable that you land there."

"Roger that."

The Valkyries as one turned towards the base while the Thunderhawks zipped back into space and headed towards the moon.

"This is your captain speaking…"

"Shinji! You're only a sarge!"

"I know Touji. I'm not nearly as stupid as you are. Anyway we are approaching the atmosphere so strap down and hope we make it." With that Shinji prepared his aircraft for approach.

* * *

"About time I found the engine room." As the Callidus temple assassin stepped into the light she discarded her guise of the Ork. Mana Kirishima, even by the standards of her temple, was more graceful than most women were. When she was inducted into the Callidus temple, she was already on her way to becoming a stunning woman. Her training at the temple made her even more graceful. Her training also give her the knowledge to sweet talk her way into and out of anything, understanding of how to impersonate anyone including aliens, and most importantly the various ways to end a man's life.

Like every other Callidus assassin, her record was perfect with each and every assignment being carried out perfectly. Even so, there was something about Mana that made her superiors give her the more difficult tasks. Mana certainly didn't know what it was. She was certain that many of her colleagues were better fighters than her. Nonetheless she carried out her others with no questions.

Her present assignment was to hunt down what was possibly the most intelligent Ork alive. Named Orkimedes, this Ork was responsible for the successful invasion of Armageddon, having provided Ghaghzkull Thraka with many of his inventions. Every assassin in the region around Armageddon was tasked with hunting down and killing Orkimedes. Mana had no idea where the Ork scientist was but she gleamed some information that some of his technology was to be used here on this Ork Waagh. As such, her search began here. Mana planned to hunt down a high-ranking Ork and then befriend or serve him in the hopes he would give away something. Not exactly the best plan but in an Ork social structure it was going to have to be enough.

Mana had boarded the Assault boat hoping it would take her to the Space hulk. Unfortunately she had instead ended up on this wreck. Mana however certainly wasn't worrying. A faithful servant of the Emperor, she knew how to make the best of situations like this. She had taken a few meltabombs with her when she left the transport and now it was time to make good use of them.

"I love a good explosion", whispered Mana into the empty room. Not that she enjoyed causing pain and silencing an odd thousand voices in the warp, she just enjoyed fireworks. Having watched many magnificent displays of pyrotechnics as a child, she now had the chance to make her own, even if the actual display was slightly different.

Arranging the melta bombs on coolant pipes, she carefully ensured each would be placed strategically. Melta bombs are not actually explosive. Instead they turn whatever is in the immediate vicinity into steam through a super heated fusion process. All Mana had to do was destroy the right bits of the engine and it would eventually explode.

Setting the remote mechanism on the bomb, Mana halted for a second. She could have sworn that there was some one or some thing else in the room. Mana unsheathed her C'tan blade and stared around the room. Nothing in sight. Mana knew better than to drop her guard, as there were many cloaking technologies in the universe. She wouldn't have questioned the presence of a harlequin on the Ork ship. After all she wasn't exactly welcome on the ship either.

After a strained 10 minutes searching for a target, Mana gave up and returned to the task of setting up the bombs. Once the bombs were set for remote detonation, she proceeded to quit the area with all due speed. By her calculations, once she set off the bombs, the ship would self-destruct in less than half an hour. _Time to find a ride out of here_ thought Mana, as she headed back the way she came.

* * *

_Fluffy white clouds, perfect blue sky, you never would have thought it was a planet at war, _wondered Shinji. When he'd been fighting at Armageddon, the sky was a continuos dust storm that seemed to reflect the mood of the soldiers. Here however, the sky might have reflected the mood of a child's storybook.

Touji on the other hand wasn't as impressed. While he had been awed by the beauty of the sky compared to Armageddon, he had quickly become bored of the same fluffy white clouds zipping past his window. _White cloud, white cloud, white cloud, black cloud, white cloud, whi…wait a sec…since when were there black clouds?_ Peering out of his window, Touji watched another black cloud appear out of nowhere. Putting two and two together, Touji tapped his mike.

"Hey Shin-man?"

"Yes Touji?"

'There's somebody shooting flak at us'

"Oh, really? Well fuck me"

Shinji instantly swung into an evasive manoeuvre, barely dodging a barrage of missiles. The other Valkyries also swung into evasive manoeuvres, swerving around the incoming fire.

'Who da heck is shooting at us!' screamed Touji as he hung on for dear life.

"No idea" shouted back Shinji "But I suggest you prepare for anything! When we land, it won't be smooth!"

As the Valkyries popped out of the cloud cover, they saw first hand exactly what was going on. Down below, a massive Ork wave was assaulting the Imperial base. It was hard to tell who was winning though from this height. What they could see however, were the numerous Ork anti air gun barrels staring them in the face.

"Everyone head straight for the Imperial base!"

The Valkyries as one swooped towards the base. Whoever was at the base had clearly seen them as an area in the middle of the base was hurriedly cleared.

As the Valkyries swung in, they unleashed a barrage from whatever weapons they had loaded. Bolter shells and rockets slammed into the front Ork advance disrupting them and confusing them long enough for the Valkyries to get down in one piece. The anti air guns at the rear of the Ork advance chose to open fire at that moment. Tracer shells ripped apart 3 of the remaining Valkyries in only seconds. Fortunately, the crudely made Ork guns jammed after that.

By the time the Valkyries had landed, the Orks had regained their composure and were launching missile after missile at the aircraft. Although most of the missles were flying past harmlessly, one of them would no doubt make contact sooner or later. As Shinji made contact with the ground, the Valkyrie next to him was blasted in the midsection by a missile. The explosion easily split the aircraft into two sections.

Shinji was about to order his men off when he realised they had already hopped off and were scattering. _Funny never expected Touji to show this amount of initiative._ Then Shinji spotted the missile coming right at him. _Hoo boy._ The missile slammed into the cockpit just as Shinji prayed to the emperor to protect him.

* * *

Misato gave one last shot from her guns just as they went out of range. Despite having fallen straight into an ambush, Misato had acquitted herself well. The only substantial loss was the transport and every other ship would be functional within a month with proper repairs and refuelling.

_Damn those Orks and their strategies, I'll … what the?_ In the distance a huge explosion had just flared up as one of the Ork roks appeared to self-destruct. _Wonder what caused that? _thought Misato. Putting it down to shoddy Ork construction, she turned her attention to keeping her fleet together and getting it to the Imperial controlled moon.

* * *

Shinji opened his eyes. His first thought was 'Unfamiliar ceiling'. His last memory was the missile slamming into the cockpit and then everything after that was a blank. Presently, he was staring at a stone ceiling. A muffled explosion caused a small sheet of dust to fall off the ceiling.

Shinji sat up wearily and looked around himself. Given the rather Spartan condition of the room, he surmised that he was in a bunker. Looking over himself, Shinji found himself in perfect shape with no injuries.

"Why the heck am I still in one piece? I'm sure the missile hit home," mumbled Shinji.

"It did but it was a dud. The force of it impacting you knocked you out. "

Shinji turned and looked at the newcomer. His immediate reaction could be roughly described as a mix between sheer and utter horror mixed in with respect. The sister of battle had the body of a goddess, albeit one who was seductive and yet dangerous at once. Her hair was a flaming red as opposed to the usual white in the sisters. Contrasting sharply to her hair were her eyes, which were a bright blue.

Most notable however was the intricate set of silver power armour she was wearing. The armour must have been an artefact of an age long gone. It was decorated with numerous trinkets and engravings of the saints and heroes of the sisters. Attached to the armour were numerous parchments with writings of the emperor on them. The sister was also holding a sword casually in her hand. The sword was even more ornamental then her armour with numerous jewels on the hilt. Set into a side holster was a type of pistol that Shinji had never seen before.

Shinji was thinking of a question before he saw the sister. Unfortunately, his mind had been wiped blank by the sight of the sister and her assorted weaponry. Eventually he was able to mutter out, "Who are you?"

"My name is Asuka Langley Sohryu, Canoness commander of the Silver Shields", declared the leader of the Adeptus Sororita. "Who are you? Judging by the respect the men have towards you, you seem to be in charge of this Imperial Guard force". Giving Shinji a quick look-over, she added, "Although you certainly don't look the part."

"It's not like I had much chance to change", grumbled Shinji as he sat himself up. "I didn't exactly have time to grab any gear on our way out of the ship. As for being in charge of this force, well officially I'm not, that all depends on whether the commander has survived."

"We don't have much time so you'll do nicely", said Asuka. "Now come with me and we'll see what we can do about equipment. Then you can join the battle". Shinji blinked.

"Battle?" Shinji was pretty sure his Valkyries had already bombed the Orks to hell and back. Admittedly, he hadn't been around to see the aftermath of the bombing run but he was certain the Orks should have died. "Didn't we kill them all?"

"No you didn't", replied Asuka. "You and your regiment came from Armageddon didn't you?" Shinji nodded. "Well then you should have enough experience to know that Orks are a little more tough than that", continued Asuka.

"Are you saying that I'm ignorant?" asked Shinji in a menacing tone.

"If I am?" The glare Asuka gave to Shinji would have cowed the bravest man. Shinji being nowhere such a person shrunk under her gaze. In his mind, Shinji realised that it wasn't the smartest of things to try and challenge sister of battle.

"While me and my sisters appreciate your help, we require further assistance from you and your men". Asuka picked up a bolt pistol, inspecting it before throwing it to Shinji casually. "The Orks brought up reinforcements in the last hour while you were knocked out. They are preparing for an all-out offensive even as we speak." Asuka was now powering up a chainsword. "Your men are a welcome addition to the battle line but I doubt it is enough. I have called for reinforcements from the capital, but given its distance from here, it is doubtful whether any help will come."

Shinji now held the chainsword. Although he'd been taught to use one, he still wasn't comfortable with it. Fact was, he didn't like close combat. He far preferred to blast his enemies from afar. "What do you need me and my force to do?"

"Stand in the line and repel the Orks for as long as physically possible and if need be, fight to the death."

Understandably, Shinji was not too fond of the idea. "Isn't there any other way?"

Asuka glared again at Shinji. She also proceeded to draw her sword and pointed it at his neck. "Are you questioning my tactics?" Shinji shook his head rapidly back and forth. "Good. Now move out."

Outside the bunker, it was organised chaos. Medics and sister Hospitallers, were running about attending to the wounded. Heavy weapons were being moved into position and some Imperial guardsmen were salvaging what they could of the Valkyries. Shinji could see the remains of tanks and buildings around the base.

"Quit dawdling and lets get to the front, the Orks will launch an attack soon."

Asuka strode off leaving Shinji to run after her. On their way, Shinji noticed the increasing number of dead bodies lying around. While the sisters had helmets to wear that would filter out the smell, his men unfortunately didn't. 'I sure hope they're handling the situation.'

At the front, Shinji could see improvised defences from sandbags and ruined vehicles. He could see a Chimera that had been immobilised but was still able to turn its turret and fire the heavy bolter on it's top. Spotting Touji, he ran over to his squad.

"Shin-man! It's good to see ya made it!"

"It's good to see you too Touji. How is everything out here?"

"Well, the Orks are just shooting at us for now, but they're getting another assault ready. We're just diggin in right now."

Shinji was about to ask some more questions, when a huge shell landed just in front of the line. Fortunately it didn't explode. The other shells landing however did.

"Take cover!" Shinji dove behind the sandbag wall landing roughly next to Touji.

"The Orks are beginning their attack!"

As one, the whole line of guardsmen and sisters got up and began firing at the incoming Ork wave. Shinji poked his head above the sandbag wall to get a look at the assault.

A sheer wave of green was running towards them. The Orks were making as much noise as they could, screaming and firing their weapons madly and indiscriminately. Although the hail of fire from the Imperial lines was mowing them down, they didn't seem to care about their own casualties. Shinji quickly ducked back down and did a quick number count. He guessed there were about 100 sisters of battle and 100 storm troopers. Against them was about 400 Orks intent on killing them. _Well this is fun_

Off to his left, the heavy bolter on the Chimera began chattering, blasting away score upon score of Orks. The heavy bolter was suddenly obliterated along with a dozen guardsmen as a barrage of missiles slammed into its position. Looking out, Shinji saw a huge Ork dreadnought steadily making its way towards their lines. Next to it was the Ork Warboss, encouraging his boyz forward.

"Shoot that Warboss!" Shinji led by example, firing his whole clip at the Warboss. Sadly, few of his men heard him and their shots failed to hurt the Warboss. As Shinji reloaded, he saw Asuka shouting into a radio. Even at his distance he could hear her angry shouts.

"What in the golden throne do you mean the reinforcements are here! I don't see any! What? What do you mean, the reinforcements aren't exactly men?"

The 'reinforcements' chose to appear at that moment. A huge explosion in the middle of the Orks engulfed the entire wave. Shinji stared mesmerised at the explosion until Touji knocked him down behind the sandbag wall. A massive wall of dust knocked up by the explosion swept across the defenders.

Moments later, Shinji opened his eyes. The dust storm that had kicked up had finished and he looked over the sandbag wall. A huge crater had appeared in the middle of the plain from the force of the explosion. Shinji was mildly surprised to see that half the Orks had still managed to survive the explosion. Shinji knew that Orks were incredibly tough but he still didn't expect many survivors. The Orks seemed to be shocked, with most of their number wandering around aimlessly.

Shinji looked around at the Imperial line. Most of the soldiers there were in the same state of shock that the Orks were. Asuka was off in the distance muttering to her self. Shinji being the good Samaritan, ran over to see if he could help her. As he approached he was able to work out what she was saying.

"I ask for reinforcements. What do I get? A fucking ICBM. Lousy damned incompetents." Before Shinji had even reached her, she had regained her sanity. She took one look at the Ork lines and uttered a single word to the mass of demoralised soldiers.

"CHARGE!" As one, the sisters of battle looked upon their leader and regained their senses. As Asuka jumped over the sandbags, the sisters also hopped over, some drawing combat knives out, others firing from the hip at the Orks with their bolters. The Imperial guardsmen seemed slightly confused. They didn't know whether they should follow Asuka or to wait until Shinji gave them orders. Shinji resolved their problem for them.

"With me men!" The guardsmen rallied around and charged off after the sisters, fixing bayonets onto their rifles. Shinji drew out his chainsword, revved it up and joined his men as they rushed to the melee.

The guardsmen found themselves hindered by the sisters as they joined battle. The sisters were in the way of the attacking guardsmen and as such, the storm troopers for the most part lost their momentum. Others found ways to keep up their attack. Touji leapt into the midst of the Orks using an Ork corpse for leverage as he vaulted over the sisters. Chainsword whirring, Touji quickly cut down the Orks nearest him and began duelling with a Nob.

Shinji dodged a blow by a Nob, before swinging his chainsword into the Ork's midsection. Not even bothering to see if he had killed the Ork, he quickly moved onto the next target. Suddenly, the Imperial line was broken as an Ork dreadnought slammed into them. The whirring blades on the dreadnought quickly cut down 4 sisters of battle, their bodies cut in half. The remaining soldiers in the area fell back, not wishing to be anywhere near the massive blades of the dreadnought. Shinji fired at the dreadnought but his bolt pistol did no damage whatsoever. The Orks laughed at the human's attempts to bring down the war machine. The Orks let out a massive "WAAGH!" and prepared to charge.

"Emperor! Guide my hand!" Shinji turned to see Asuka charging the dreadnought single-handedly. Ducking beneath the blades of the dreadnought, the canoness brought her sword up in a deadly arc cutting of one of the machines blades. She quickly jumped on the remains of the machine's severed arm and slammed her blade straight through the machine up to the hilt. The dreadnought continued to function for a moment, walking forwards and swinging both it's arms. Then it exploded.

The Orks immediately gave up the fight upon seeing their dreadnought destroyed and fled the battlefield. The Imperial forces fired upon the retreating Orks and chased after them for a while, harrying their retreat. Shinji on the other hand, ran over to the dreadnought.

"Canoness! Are you okay?" He couldn't see Asuka anywhere. He nearly jumped out of his skin in fright when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

"I'm fine", declared Asuka from behind him. "You look kinda jittery though. I didn't think that an Imperial commander was that cowardly." As Shinji recovered himself and prepared to utter a retort, Asuka turned around and began heading back to the base. Shinji had to be content with grumbling under his breath.

"By the way, call me Asuka."

* * *

There you have it! The first full-length chapter.

Given that this is my first fanfic ever, I'd appreciate it if hints and pointers could be included in reviews.

By the way, does anyone know what Games Workshop's position on making your own characters is? Thx.

Imperial terminology for dummies. (No offence)

The races.

Sisters of battle: In short, they are women who have been trained from childhood to fight and serve the inquisitors of the Ordo hereticus. It is they who weed out the heretic, the mutant, the witch and the rogue psyker. The sisters historicallyhailed from the sabbat worlds but they now base themselves from both Terra and their original home worlds.

Imperial guardsmen: The most numerous force of the Imperium, Imperial guardsmen form the greater part of the battle line. Each planet will send a set amount of its men to be trained into guardsmen. Although they are weak compared to other races, they make up for this weakness with sheer numbers. Stormtroopers are the elites of the guardsmen with access to better armor and weapons.

Orcs (or as I say it Orks): Take the Orcs from any book or game. Downgrade their intelligence and their grammatical abilities. Then give them guns. Thats an accurate description I think. Orks love a fight and they will try to beat the living daylights out of anyone they can, including each other! Orks are also known for their love of speed and taking stuff off other people, namely dead people.

Space marines: These guys are trained from childhood as well. They are also augmented with the DNA of mini-gods. They can run forever, don't have to sleep, can chew through iron, can EAT iron bars for brekky and learn by eating their enemies.

I realise that there are other races I've mentioned in this chapter but I'll explain in greater detail later when they play a bigger part.

The guns.

Bolters: Take a bullet and give it a little explosive charge inside the tip of it. By little I mean a good sized wad of C4. Bolter shells are guaranteed to kill most people with one shot. Remember short controlled bursts.

Hellguns and Lasguns: Lasguns are supposedly reliable. Most Warhammer enthusiasts tend to laugh at them though. They are the equivalent of a good assault rifle from these days. Why are they used then? Lasguns can be manufactured out of anything and I mean literally anything. Materials from wood to metal and plasitc all work for making one. This is useful because not every planet has the right materials to make a complicated weapon. Hellguns are better versions of lasguns.

Lascannon: A big lasgun. Like really big. Bigger than you or me or anyone else. BIG.

ICBM: Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile. Think cruise missile. The imperial guard cruise missiles are launched from vehicles that carry them around. This provides greater versatility although seeing how the range of a ICBM is damn huge, there's a good question as to why even bother.

Review.


	3. The Eye of Terror

The Eye of Terror. A place where the warp mingles with real space. It is here that the most evil of denizens gather and plot against their enemies and their prey. The four chaos gods are worshipped here and their followers perform the most destructive acts in their name. More often than not, these men, if they can be called that anymore, fall into a well of insanity, destroying everything in sight. They are madmen and quite often they vent their anger on anyone or anything near them.

None of them were quite as angry as Abaddon.

It wasn't really possible to describe his anger. One way to describe it would be to imagine every citizen in the Imperium, eye of terror and any other human occupied world thinking angry thoughts for their whole life. Multiply that by a hundred and you would have a good idea on how the despoiler felt.

Abaddon had good reason to be angry. The 13th black crusade was the greatest feat he had ever accomplished. He had united the space marines of all the fallen chapters. He had gathered the support of the renegade titan and imperial guard regiments. The planet killer had been built and was proven to work. Abaddon took this huge army and threw it at the Cadian gate fully expecting to smash through.

And they didn't. Despite the sheer number of troops he had thrown at the Imperium and his tactical genius they had still failed to break through. Abaddon could name at least a hundred reasons why he had been stopped but it didn't matter what they were. All he had to know was that he had been stopped. And that it really, really annoyed him. Now after the crusade, Abaddon quietly fumed inside his throne room, plotting and cursing his enemies. Even his personal bodyguard of terminators were twitchy. It wasn't unknown for Abaddon to kill those under him if they failed in their duties. The way Abaddon saw it, everyone under him had failed spectacularly in the crusade.

_Damn the Eldar, how dare they interfere in my plans. _A small consolation for Abaddon was that the greatest Eldar farseer, Eldrad Ulthran had his soul disappear into… well he didn't know where to be precise but Abaddon sure hoped it was painful and permanent. _Damned be the Orks and the Necrons. _The two races had often raided his forces and forced delays in attacks. _But most importantly damned be the Imperium. _

"I share your sentiments my dear despoiler"

Instantly almost every gun in the throne room swung towards the voice and without hesitation, opened fire. The terminators maintained their fire for a full 20 seconds until their clips ran out. They proceeded to reload and point their guns at the target again. The bombardment of bolter shells had created a virtual smokescreen around the target such was the intensity of the fire. Abaddon looked disinterestedly at the smoke. Chances were that whoever had spoken was a bullet-ridden corpse on the floor by now.

Not surprisingly, when the smoke cleared and revealed that the person was still alive, Abaddon was slightly taken aback. Giving the signal to the terminators to hold their fire, Abaddon got off his throne and walked down to the figure.

Abaddon's first impression of the person was that it was a servitor of some kind. An instant later he dismissed the idea. A servitor did not 'agree' with anyone let alone voice any emotion whatsoever. Yet the amount of metal limbs and augments meant that the person was obviously well versed in mechanical objects and the like. A tech-priest? That didn't seem right either. Tech priests from Mars tended to have a weird array of extra limbs and smoke coming out from various bits of their bodies as well as pipes all over them. The person in front of him instead had seamless armor except at the joints. Abaddon knew from experience that the armour was made of adamantinum and that certainly wasn't common. From the feet pieces up to the helmet with a single slit visor for the eyes, this technology simply did not exist in the Imperium. Abaddon considered his own tech priests and instantly frowned. The tech priests under his command wouldn't even dare to come near him right now. Come to think of it, all of his underlings didn't want to be near him. _Damned cowards. This is the EXACT reason why we lost the crusade. _Considering the subject, he wondered if he could get this stranger to divulge the secrets of his armour. His marines could certainly use it.

"Yes I'm sure they could."

The despoiler frowned. Here was a person who was a psyker, a skilled one at that seeing as he couldn't even feel the stranger penetrate his mind to find his thoughts. Adding that to his knowledge in mechanics and physics and Abaddon had himself a galaxy-class nerd. Either that or a very dangerous person. Abaddon walked around the figure once before asking, "Who are you?"

"Irrelevant. My name does not matter. If you have to call me something call me the saviour."

"You dare to refuse my demands?" Abaddon was both shocked and incredibly pissed. It was bad enough he had lost the damn crusade but to add insult to injury, people now disrespected him! He could see the Imperial children now swinging bats at piñatas of him and…

"Warmaster, it doesn't matter because all you need to know is that I can provide a way for you to strike at the heart of the Imperium and to not only capture Terra but to hold it". Abaddon found himself for the first time in centuries confused. He had always wanted to go to Terra and finish what Horus had begun but he had lacked the resources to do so. He could damn well go there right now with the planet killer and destroy the damn planet but he didn't want that. Like his predecessor before him, Abaddon wanted to not only control Terra but to control the whole Imperium. The easiest way to do that is to quite simply take Terra. Heck if you even held it for one day, the Imperium might collapse on itself with it's numerous citizens dissenting and their faith in the Emperor shaken. But it was never enough. Power always demands more and Abaddon wanted control of the whole galaxy.

Yet even through his insatiable desire for power, common sense and millenniums of begin on his guard shone through. How did this stranger know what he wanted? And moreover, why did he want to help? If he knew this surely he would have conquered the Imperium himself?

"Everyone knows what you want Abaddon. It isn't exactly a secret. As for helping you, well lets just say I also want the Imperium destroyed so I'm willing to ally with you. Lastly, I can't do this on my own. You must remember that I'm just one person. Even if my technology is highly advanced, it's impossible for me to find and capture the weapons."

"Quit reading my mind. It's unnerving."

The saviour merely gave a small smile before replying. "I've been around for a long time Abaddon, longer than you have. I tend to be able to anticipate people's questions and their reactions. It's a surprisingly useful habit."

Abaddon mentally gave a small sigh of relief. If the saviour couldn't read his mind then that meant he could go about his plotting in peace without constant interference. Looking the saviour in the eye, _or visor or what ever that is_ thought Abaddon as he looked into the single slit that was the equivalent of an eye, Abaddon threw his next question at the saviour. "How exactly do you expect me to be able to capture Terra? I certainly don't have enough support here in the Eye of terror to amass every last chaos marine and cultist. If you want me to gain their support, then you must give me a weapon of immense magnitude."

"Well despoiler, I'm sure the help of the chaos legions would be useful, but I'm not sure whether they're necessary"

"What? You think you can just walk in to Terra and capture the place? There is no weapon in the Galaxy that would give us that power. There are weapons aplenty that could destroy it but none that would help in it's capture."

"You mean none that you know of personally." Abaddon was struck by the sheer arrogance the man carried. It was as though he'd worked everything out to the last detail and nothing could go wrong. _He sounds just like me. _Abaddon was beginning to like the guy.

"What weapons do you know of then?"

"It's a long story. Could I have a seat first?"

Strangely enough, it took the better part of an hour to find a seat for the saviour. Even Abaddon was shocked. When he had furnished and built the palace, it appeared he had only been concerned about making an impenetrable fortress. It was stockpiled to the brim with millions of bullets and thousands of explosives and Abaddon in his fervour to create the most defensible place in the warp had overlooked the small things in life. They eventually made a chair on the spot from spent rounds, spare bits of metal lying around and a daemon that Abaddon had bended to his will.

"Thank you", said the saviour once he sat down. "The story of these weapons begins far back into Terra's history."

"Don't you mean the Imperium's history?" Abaddon already knew the reply but he wanted to hear it in words. The fragments of the history of mankind from before the Imperium were few in number and even harder to find.

"No from before. In fact about thirty eight thousand years before." That was even more surprising. Abaddon didn't even know what mankind was doing back then.

"It was there that man was to face the first of his great challenges. It was back at that time, that man first faced his own mortality. Apocalypse was upon mankind and in its defence was but a few dozen people. The apocalypse took the form of 17 angels. These angels are about the same size as a warhound titan. But each one had untold strength."

Abaddon wasn't impressed. "I'll believe in it when I see it."

"Sadly you won't see these angels. They were destroyed by giant robots known as evangelions or evas in short. Evangelions are the only weapons equal to the angels brute strength."

Abaddon was quickly losing patience. "What exactly does this have to do with me?"

"You could do with these weapons. Their strength individually is the equal of a titan. However, if you can arrange all of them in one place, you will control the galaxy."

That got Abaddon thinking. In truth, he still didn't exactly believe the saviour. He was more interested in the origins of these evangelions. By the sounds of them and the way they worked, they might be corrupted by chaos. It was like the Chaos gods or anything chaos related for that matter. Most of the time they were bickering amongst themselves, fighting over meaningless things. If they ever banded together however, they would be able to overwhelm any enemy. _The last time everyone got together was back when Horus was still alive._

"Your predecessor knew of these weapons too. Horus attempted to recover them so he could use them against the Imperium. Sadly he died before he could use them."

Something didn't fit with his story. Abaddon was one of Horus's closest officers. Surely he would have known about such a plan.

"If all this did occur then why didn't Horus ever tell me about his plan. Horus always told me what he was going to do."

"He was going to. Horus had already managed to recover most of the evangelions. Of the eleven that exist, he managed to get 10 of them. He intended to assign you to the group that was going to retrieve the last eva. Before he could recover the last one, the Emperor killed him. Horus however left us with a parting gift. His last action was to scatter the evas around the galaxy. This served two purposes"

"It prevented the Imperium from recovering the evas. And it meant that his next in command might one day find them and use them." Horus had been kind and considerate to his successors even in his final moments. _A cruel irony._

"Correct. Horus however didn't leave any clues on where the evas were sent. The only way to find the evas is to locate one. Believe me it's not easy to find them."

"It took you 10 millenia to find one. If its going to take another one hundred thousand years to get all of them then you can count me out. I can find a more efficient way to conquer the galaxy."

"No need to despair Abaddon, if I'm correct, Horus left clues on each of the evangelions detailing where the next ones were. Once we get one of them, it'll be easy to find the rest. The first one is near the Armageddon system. I believe you know the place?"

_How couldn't I? _Once upon a time, a massive Chaos war band had taken a space hulk and hopped on board, not knowing where it would go but prepared to wreck havoc wherever it went. They had appeared over Armageddon and begun an invasion. Back then Armageddon wasn't really a very important place. It soon became apparent however, that unless something was quickly done, the Chaos war band might actually be able to break through to Terra. Reinforcements were rushed to the planet and the war band was annihilated. This engagement would become known as the First Armageddon war.

"A new Waagh has recently begun and it has invaded a nearby system. It would appear that the eva is located somewhere on the Space hulk itself. I have developed a device which can directly detect the location of an eva so long as we are within one kilometre of it."

"What do I need to do?"

"I need you to provide the men and the equipment to retrieve the evas. We'll also need them to provide support for the evas in battle. Although yhe evas can quite easily function on their own, like any other titans, they need the support in order to secure and hold a place."

The saviour stood up and brushed himself off then looked Abaddon in the eye. "Will you help me in this great endeavour Abaddon?"

Abaddon barely hesitated before sealing the deal. "I'll gladly help."

"Excellent. Now lets step outside your palace for a moment. I have arranged for some help to be given to you."

The saviour, Abaddon and his retinue left the throne room. Abaddon and the saviour led the way as they discussed the finer points of the history of the evas. The retinue of terminators made up the rear. As the group rounded the corner, nobody noticed the last terminator continue walking forwards as though he wanted to smash into the wall. The terminator then proceeded to walk right through the wall.

* * *

Outside the palace, the saviour requested that they be taken into space. Abaddon called for a thunderhawk to send them up into the planet killer, which was in for repairs. The planet killer, Abaddon's personal flagship, had been severely damaged in the 13th black crusade. Thankfully, it wasn't destroyed and it was now being repaired and rearmed. Once again, the power of chaos had shone through and the daemons and renegade tech-priests working together had already finished most of the repairs. All that was left was for the ammunition and supplies to be restocked. Abaddon gave a quick tour of the vessel to the saviour before they headed to the bridge.

"So where is this help you speak off?"

"It should be arriving just about…now."

Abaddon looked expectantly out of the ships window. He saw nothing out of the ordinary. That is, if you consider ordinary to be swirling masses of colour and indistinct shapes in the distance.

"Hmm… looks like my forces have been caught up in a small warp storm just inside the eye of terror."

"Inside it you say? Well I'm sure the chaos gods will help us. All we need to do is give them a small gift", Abaddon turned to his console and depressurised a bulkhead.

"Ah there we go, they're out of the storm. Here they come."

Abaddon stared out into space. At first everything looked normal, then a huge hole seemed to tear itself out of the space. Looking into the hole, Abaddon could see the raw energy of the warp itself. Then his view was suddenly blocked out as a huge ship exited from warp space. Abaddon showed no surprise as the space hulk popped into real space. It was nothing he hadn't seen before although he was certainly impressed at how one mere person could take control of a space hulk and renovate it to make it fit for living in.

Or fighting in.

Abaddon however did show mild shock when another 3 space hulks pulled themselves out of the warp. "How in the name of the four ruinous powers did you find 4 space hulks? And on that point how did you do it alone!"

"Well, I actually have a large following of people. They don't exactly understand their part in the big plan but they do listen to me."

"What the hell do you say? I didn't think the Imperium tolerated other religions other than that of the emperor."

"They don't. I say that I do praise the emperor and collect funds for charity and so forth. Doesn't sound like much but considering the fanatical faith on some worlds, this money adds up to be a lot. Once I have the funds I hire mercenaries to do the dirty work."

"Not a bad plan. What do these space hulks have in terms of armoury and firepower?"

"None whatsoever. I found them in their exact state right now. You'll need to fix some stuff and so forth but I imagine that won't take too long with the number of men you have."

Abaddon considered the situation. An Ork Waagh meant that he would have to move fast or this opportunity would pass him by. He was also sure that no matter how fast his men worked; they would never be able to get the hulks ready in time. "I appreciate your confidence in my forces but even they aren't that good. We need to leave right away if we are going to get to the eva in time." Bringing up the planet killer's repair checklist, he saw that all of the vital reparations had been completed.

"I'll take a small expeditionary force out to capture the eva straight off. It'll only be a small hit and run force, nothing permanent. The hulks will stay here till they're ready. Then we can meet up at the next evangelion to be captured."

"Are you certain we can get in with only a small force. There's over a million Orks in the space hulk not to mention the Imperial forces."

"Don't worry saviour, I have faith in my men." Of course, there was a degree of small misunderstanding between the men. By small, the saviour presumed a force of maybe 10,000 marines. Small by Abaddon's standards meant taking the whole Black Legion and as many ships as possible to the fight.

* * *

As Abaddon began preparations for his newest crusade, a small cloaked ship, hiding in orbit around the planet Abaddon was planning his attack, took on a passenger began to swing around to leave the Eye of Terror. A Necron ship, it had just picked up one of the most powerful beings in the universe. The C'tan, or sun god, known as the Deceiver had just returned to the ship and they were now to leave. The Deceiver had his answers and that was enough.

The Deceiver contemplated what he had learnt. He was originally hanging around the Ork Waagh that had begun near Armageddon. Attracted by the presence of one of his children, he had come close to being reunited with it. But before he could, he felt a powerful presence that he had only felt once before. Seeking answers and knowledge, he had snuck into the palace of the Despoiler under the diguise of a terminator, knowing that the saviour would appear and provide him with answers. He had seen the saviour many millennia ago as he talked to Horus. Now that he had the answers he sought, he could continue the plot he had hatched ten millennia ago. The plot to end the Imperium.

* * *

Millions of miles away, Shinji was overseeing the recharging of the las packs. Las energy packs can be recharged from any heat source and the best way to do it is to let it lie out in the sun. Although each las pack was barely larger than a small book, the huge number they had meant that they needed a whole landing pad to accommodate for all the packs they had. Shinji was just about to kick off for the rest of the day when a sister walked up to him.

"The canoness wants a word with you Commander Shinji." (See note 1)

"Really? Tell her I'll be there in a minute."

Shinji was slightly curious as to why she wanted to have a word. Although the two were equals in a sense and were suppose to run the base together, they rarely spoke to one another casually. They only talked when they were planning battles or discussing supplies lines and such. To be called up suddenly like this made Shinji a little nervous and very afraid. _Come to think of it, who wouldn't be?_

As Shinji walked into the bunker, he realised that whatever he was called in for was official business. The canoness had an indulgent smile on her face and was toying with her sword playfully.

"You wanted a word canoness?"

"Like I said, call me Asuka and yes I do want a word with you."

"What's the matter Asuka?"

"It has to do with the conduct of your men", Shinji blinked. What did his men do wrong? He knew they were all faithful to the Emperor and had fought well. What had they done to offend Asuka?

"Your men have been acting inappropriately around my brethren and as effective leader of this camp, (Although Shinji would have protested this, he was terrified of incurring Asuka's wrath) it is my duty to administer punishment to them. Their service to the Emperor has spared them their lives. So instead I have found a lucrative way to deal with them."

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean Asuka. What do you mean by 'Inappropriately'?"

Asuka stared at Shinji in disbelief. His battle record stated that he had been with his men since 5 years ago, in the hell that was Armageddon. Despite his time with them, he had not been cursed with the same problem his men had.

"I think I can explain better outside."

Asuka got up and walked outside, attaching a laser sight to her bolt pistol. Shinji followed still curious as to what was going on.

He soon found out.

Lined up against the wall of the bunker, was about a dozen men, all tied up in a X figure. Among them was Touji. Each and every single one was shaking in fear. Shinji was once again stunned. He had seen these men charge in defiance straight into an artillery barrage with no fear and yet here they were, scared stiff. About twenty meters off, eleven sisters of battle were lined up and staring down the sights of their bolters. They all had the same laser targeting system that Asuka had but they were turned off.

"What in the golden thrones name is this about!" Shinji couldn't see any reason as to why his men should be executed.

"SHINJI! SAVE US!", Touji was quite clearly in hysterics by now struggling like mad against his restraints.

"Ladies, activate your sights." As one, the sisters activated their targeting system. Shinji instantly understood what was going on. It was hard to miss the fact that the sisters were aiming their guns at his soldiers' groin area.

"Look Asuka um…", Shinji desperately tried to think of a way to get the red haired executioner to spare his friends manhood. Admittedly, a small part of Shinji's mind declared that they probably deserved this by all accounts, but Shinji was loyal to his friends. They had fought and been shot at together and the greatest thing war ever made was comradeship under arms. The only thing that was stronger than Shinji's friendship with his pals was his faith in the Emperor. Shinji's mind went into overload as he watched Asuka aim squarely at Touji's genitals.

"Look, Asuka, I know these men have acted in a manner disrespectful towards then females of this camp but I don't think the punishment fits the crime."

Asuka didn't even bother moving. "Why not? One shot and then they'll never have another thought of that kind. They'll even focus better on their training."

Shinji noticed how Asuka's trigger finger was beginning to pull back the trigger. He quickly played his last card. If it succeeded, he'd be called a hero back at the guardsmen section of the camp. If he didn't succeed, well, they could always wrap him in tarpaulin and use him as target practice.

"Look I'm the other commander in this camp and since these are men under my jurisdiction, I'll be the one to declare their punishment."

Asuka looked at Shinji. Although her face was expressionless, her eyes were boring into Shinji's pair. Shinji was struck by how quickly those dazzling light blue eyes could suddenly look downright menacing. Shinji felt his primal instincts urging him to run for the hills but thankfully his duty to his friends held him in place. Sadly that was all it did. Shinji was sweating bullets and he could only hope Asuka wouldn't notice.

After a full minute, Asuka broke eye contact and looked back at the condemned men. She whispered something into the sister's private communications channel that Shinji didn't catch. The sisters turned off their targeting systems and readjusted their bolters. Shinji heaved a sigh of relief just as Asuka yelled, "Fire!"

A dozen shots rang out and slammed into the bunker. Shinji almost shouted out in fear and anger but then he noticed that his men weren't harmed. Admittedly, they had all fainted but otherwise they were fine. Shinji noticed that all the bolter shells landed one inch below their designated target.

"Be thankful that we used solid metal shells and not our normal combat issued ones. Sisters! Dismissed!"

Shinji ran over, laughing from the reactions of the convicted soldiers and also from sheer relief. Touji was the first to rise mumbling incoherently. Shinji gave him a generous doseof his personal supply ofbeer as he called for stretcher-bearers to get them out of there.

* * *

A few miles off, a supply caravan was headed towards the capital city of the world. Because of the relative safety of the area, it had minimal defences in the belief they were perfectly safe. It was also presumed they would see any enemy force from miles away.

Big mistake.

In the grass that surrounded the area, Ork kommandos were silently waiting for the caravan to get closer. Unlike their more unruly brethren, kommandos can be relied upon to sneak up on the enemy and take them by surprise. In pitched battle they are often used to flank the enemy or attack from planned positions deep in enemy territory. Out of major battles they can be used to sabotage, reconnaissance or, as in this case, steal supplies and vehicles. The kommandos lined up their sights on the lead vehicles tyres and opened fire. It took the kommandos a while to pop the tyres but the guardsmen guarding the convoy were even slower to react to the problem at hand. The kommandos then quickly threw krak grenades at the sole Imperial tank that was turning its gun towards them. The Krak grenades didn't work as planned though, only knocking out the gun. The kommandos saw this as an added benefit however. They saw it as more loot to take back to the camp.

The guardsmen were quickly overwhelmed as the kommandos jumped into close combat. In short time, the guards were either dead or running away. Not that they would live for much longer anyway. For a force of 50 guardsmen and a tank to be overwhelmed by about 20 Orks was a disgrace and they would almost certainly be put to the sword. The kommandos relaxed as soon as they saw the humans run. They began looking at the vehicles and scrounging whatever they could find.

"Hehe, 'ey guys? Fink I can drive da oomies tank outta 'ere?"

"Don't be a stoopid moron Gruznut. Yoo can't drive fo' nofing."

Gruznut was about to reply when his head was blown apart. The kommandos stared stupidly at his corpse for a short time. In that short time Mana's reclaimed plasma pistol blew another two of them apart. Mana had crash landed in emperor knows where and had trekked for a day now with no food or water. Her ability to polymorph into different species had helped slightly but there was only a certain limit a human could take without nourishment. Having come across this convoy shortly after it was attacked, she now proceeded to dispatch the Orks.

The kommandos regained their senses and charged Mana wildly. As they bunched up, Mana was able to use her neural shredder at maximum capacity. Swinging towards the largest concentration of Orks, she let rip with the mind-targeting weapon. Five of the Orks instantly dropped like rocks while the rest lost their momentum. Taking advantage of her opponents' temporary loss of initiative, Mana drew her C'tan blade and jumped into the greenskins. She lopped of one of the Ork's head while she was in mid flight and landed on one of the Orks. Stabbing him in the chest she then rode his corpse forward into another Ork, adjusting the dead Ork's weapon so that it landed squarely in his fellow's chest. Bouncing away she landed in the middle of the remaining Orks. _11 Orks down, 9 to go._ The Nob in charge of the raid let out a roar and charged the assassin. She quickly bounced backwards out of his reach allowing his axe to land on the ground. While the Nob stared stupidly at the spot where his axe had landed, Mana leapt onto the axe grip before slamming her blade into the Nob's body. To the Ork's credit he didn't die immediately but instead let out a roar of pain. Mana on realising the Ork was tougher than his comrades drew her neural shredder and fired at point blank range. The Nob went down along with two of his underlings who were hit by the neural blast. The rest of the band fled upon seeing their leader die. Mana didn't let them go however; as she knew they would bring back more Orks. Picking up a lasgun she used to snipe down the Orks as they fled.

Once she had eliminated all of the Orks, Mana scrambled onto the trucks and checked out the supplies.

"Alright!" It appeared that the convoy was carrying supplies for officers. It had plasma pistol recharge packs, new cloaks, uniforms and other extravagant weaponry and clothing. It also contained food that was generally reserved for only generals and planetary governors. In short, Mana had a small feast on her hands.

Grabbing a bottle of wine, she popped it and took a small sip. Finding it to be top quality she happily grabbed some food and a plasma pack. Placing the pack in the middle of some grass and various branches and sticks, Mana shot the plasma pack from a safe distance. Not safe enough as charged plasma flew at her. Using her incredible reflexes, she dodged out of the way but still slopped some of the wine onto the ground. Unfazed, she began cooking the food. In minutes, Mana dug into her food with delight. She had also managed to find an Imperial distress beacon and had activated it while the food was cooking. Now all she had to do was wait.

Unbeknownst to Mana, the Ork distress beacon that was attached to the Nob had also began working.

* * *

A second chapter! And boy did it take a long time! Sorry about the length until this update, I had exams at school and it's the final year. I'll try to update regularly though.

Weapons of 40k universe:

Planet killer: This huge ship was constructed within the eye of terror. It has the ability, as its name suggests, to destroy whole planets. It's also formidable in ship-to-ship combat, as it is armed with numerous weapons and carries enough men to launch raids on other ships and to repel raids with ease.

Space hulks: Space hulks have no real distinct shape. They are a weird combination of numerous ships and space debris that have fused together by crashing into one another or by combining in the warp. Space hulks tend to house incredible technology namely because the hulk contains the ships that house incredible technology. It is Imperial doctrine to capture space hulks whenever possible to get at the technology inside. This is often easier said than done because space hulks can carry daemons and various deep space entities that often do not enjoy other people's presence onboard. Space hulks are random in nature and they will disappear and reappear at will and wherever they want. E.g. the space hulk that started the First Armageddon War. It appears however, that it is possible to control these massive ships so long as you know how to.

C'tan blade: This baby can literally cut through anything. It has the strange ability to warp itself into different shapes and it can therefore, avoid armour as it can easily sneak into the gaps in the armour and strike directly at the body. Its also sharp of course.

Bolter rounds: There are many different bolter rounds and they range from solid shots to gas filled tips that kill silently.

Bolter upgrades: Bolters fill many roles and can be adjusted for any situation. One example is the sniper rifle bolter. Take a targeting device, a silencer, and gas bolts and it's easy to pick off guards silently.

Neural shredder: Not sure how this works but it would appear to fire some sort of resonance that targets the brain directly frying it. Naturally, a strong mind is easier to subdue than a weak one. Orks tend to have weak minds because they usually rely on the power of the Waagh! to win rather then individual thought.

The people and the races:

Chaos: Technically speaking, the people are actually for the most part Imperial soldiers, civilians, tech-priests etc. that have succumbed to chaos. They may have had their bodies warped to a large extent to better serve chaos although few normal people receive this privilege. Some other races also fall to the corruption of chaos although they are often few and far in between.

Chaos space marines: Of the 18 chapters that had existed at the time of the Emperor, half of them revolted in the Horus heresy and fought against the Imperium. Having been defeated, they fell back to the Eye of Terror. To this day they continue to plot against the Imperium. For the most part, they stay with their chapter but many war bands have also existed outside of the chapters. These war bands may include members from the chapters or other mercenaries. Note that sometimes these war bands may actually be made from a whole chapter but only because that chapter has been torn asunder by infighting. Examples include the world eaters and the fallen dark angels.

Abaddon: Biggest git in the galaxy but unfortunately also the strongest too. He has lead thirteen great crusades against the Imperium but all have failed. His personality is best described at the beginning of this chapter. Nasty and prone to killing his own men for incompetence.

Necrons: An ancient race from almost the beginning of the galaxy. They seek to enslave all life. They use to be normal humanoids but they were turned into the beings they are now, decrepit skeletons, by the C'tan or sun gods.

The Deceiver: The ultimate magician. He can create a dazzling array of illusions and images. He has often used his powers to get enemies to fight each other. He thrives upon the destruction caused by his interference. More on him throughout the story.

Once again I have left out people and races because I haven't described them in the story yet. Review and help as always.


	4. The calm before the storm

Another chapter in the story and I can only hope it appeases my readers. On that note could you please review? I don't exactly mind having no reviews since this story was purely started for the fun of it, but it is odd to see a story having a ratio of a hundred hits to one review. Please take the time to review if nothing else. Even one word is something.

Disclaimer (aka useless lawyer subversive crud). I don't own anything, not even this computer I'm typing on. I'm at an Internet café.

* * *

"Hmm… looks like there's a distress signal."

"What? Where is it coming from?"

"Erm…looks like it's coming from this sector here. Looks like it might have been an armoured column or a resupply train because they were using a road. Infantry would have just marched in a straight line at us. We better tell the commanders."

"You mean commander right?"

"Oh yeah, right."

* * *

Shinji had just fallen asleep when he was woken up again.

"Sir! The canoness requires your presence."

"Grumble tell her I'll be there shortly."

Shinji hauled himself up and put on his officer's uniform. As he reflected upon the past week, he found it rather odd how he had been a grunt but all of a sudden he was a full-fledged Imperial commander. It wasn't official yet but once they returned to the main headquarters, he would probably be inducted. _That's if we ever get to return._ The base was incredibly remote and it was entirely reasonable to expect that they would be relieved in a year's time. The only reason they were being resupplied regularly was because Asuka was there. Speaking of supplies, their last shipment had been overdue. It wasn't anything critical since they had a decent amount of reserves but that doesn't mean it should be ignored.

* * *

Shinji found Asuka packing her equipment and personal belongings. She had no fewer than 5 bolt pistol clips on her and she had already put all her holy trinkets and writings into a titanium safe. She looked up briefly at Shinji when he walked in before returning to checking her bolt pistol.

"What's the matter Asuka?"

"Two things. One good and one bad. Which one do you want to hear first?"

Shinji could practically guess what the bad news was but he asked her any way. "What's the bad news?"

"Our supply line has been attacked. Our radio station picked up a distress signal just a few hours ago and we're moving out. Which brings me to the good news. I've been trying to get permission to leave this place for quite some time and now I have an excuse."

"I didn't think it was normal for warriors to abandon their posts?" Although Shinji was just joking, Asuka proceeded to walk over and give him a sharp flick in the forehead with her finger.

"Don't be stupid. This place can't be held and quite frankly I think we both want out. I suggest you tell your men to pack their belongings. We'll be moving out in less than two hours."

* * *

The Imperial guardsmen were efficient despite the fact that they were obviously unhappy with being roughly woken up in the middle of the night.

"Why can't we just wait till the morning Shin-man?" Touji was none too happy at being woken up. He'd been sleeping soundly when one of his comrades shoved him out of his bed.

"We need to go out and recover what we can of the supplies. Although in all likelihood the supplies will be gone, we have to check it out anyway. Plus you don't want to incur Asuka's wrath again do you?" That last statement was more then enough to convince Touji to wake up and start moving.

* * *

By the appointed two-hour limit, the guardsmen had climbed aboard their chimaeras, the standard guardsmen APC and were ready to move out. The sisters had their own separate chimaeras and had already climbed in long before their counterparts were ready. Another bunch of the APCs were carrying everything useful inside the base, ranging from communications equipment to ammunition. Shinji was about to give the order to begin moving when Asuka turned up looking agitated.

"What's the matter?"

"There's an Ork distress signal from the same area. That means either both parties wiped each other out by some insane possibility or the Imperial soldiers there are severely undermanned and require assistance. I would almost be sure it was the latter."

"Well what do we do?"

Asuka looked at the row of tanks in front of her. She then switched on her radio and gave an open broadcast to everyone in the area. "Listen up people. I know you're all eager to get back to the capital city but first we're going to secure that destroyed supply train. Got it? Good. Tell your gunners to load then weapons and to prepare for anything. Better open the gun slits too. Never know what might happen and we could use the firepower."

Shinji found the instructions to be unsettling. "Why didn't you mention the fact there might be a battle in the offering?"

"Sometimes it's best your men don't know everything you're doing. Ignorance is bliss as they say but only in controlled amounts. I don't want the soldiers to get all worked up only to find no one there to face us. I've known commanders who were so jittery they opened fire on their reinforcements. I hate to think what the common soldiery would do."

"A strange way to do things. I would have put more trust in my men."

"They are only human. It is we, their leaders, the ones who tell them what to do, that truly affect what happens and make things happen the way they should happen."

"But we're only human too aren't we?"

Shinji half expected Asuka to knock him out for suggesting that she was only the equal of a common man. Instead she merely narrowed her eyes as she glared into an old memory. "Yes we are. But that doesn't mean we should just surrender to our fate. We can always do more than what destiny has arranged for us." Asuka continued to glare into the distance before giving a small shake of her head and giving the order for the column of vehicles to move out.

* * *

Mana was beside herself with fury. Despite the fact she had destroyed the Ork transmitter the instant she had found it, the damage was already done. The Orks would be arriving in strength soon and in huge numbers. While she was still flying down towards the surface, Mana had done a quick overlook of the area. Judging from the size of the nearest Ork encampment, she could expect at least a hundred Orks coming to her position plus their vehicles and servants.

Although the odds were against her, Mana was used to fighting in against such horrendous odds. More often than not during her assassination missions, she had to kill her target in the open and then fight through the deceased's personal bodyguard before she could escape. Once upon a time she had murdered a renegade Imperial commander only to find herself ambushed by at least a hundred angry followers of the commander. She always managed to fight her way out of these battles and grab a ride out of the planet.

This time however there would be no quick exit. It would be a fight to the death, a last stand. Mana had already prepared a mixed welcoming for the Orks. She only hoped it was enough.

* * *

It had often been said that Misato was a disgrace to the Imperial navy. Many people had told Misato this but she didn't really care about what they had to say. The day she stopped drinking was the day the Emperor was reborn. Recently Misato had been drinking herself stupid inside her ship. The repairs had been finished a long time ago and she had in a generous act given all the crew freedom for the day. Misato used this spare time to drink, flirt with various crewmembers and tease anybody she came across. In her drunken stupor she had even been messing around with the space marines who were stationed at the Imperial docks. Naturally they were none too pleased with her actions.

Now she was confined to her ship until called upon by her superiors. What her superiors didn't know was that Misato kept her own secret stash of alcohol on the ship. Even confined to the dreary battleship, Misato was still thoroughly enjoying herself.

Currently she was having fun in a drinking contest with her officers. After five glasses of beer, Misato was laughing at anything that moved and her officers weren't much better. When the servitor arrived, everybody openly giggled at it and pointed in its general direction.

"The war council requests the presence of Admiral Misato Katsuragi."

Misato instantly perked dropping the image of being completely wasted. She had left the room before any of her underlings realised.

"Hey, wheresh the admial?"

"WHO CARES? DRINK! WHEE!"

* * *

Misato found the entire war council had been assembled. She quickly took her assigned seat before the rest of the members. The planetary governor slowly stood up before addressing the council.

"I believe that we have found a chance to end this waagh in one felled swoop." Murmuring instantly broke out amongst the assembled before everyone fell silent again at a gesture from the governor. "I warn you however that this plan is fraught with danger. This upcoming battle may well decide the fate of this entire sector. I believe our space marine brothers here have the full details."

Chaplain Versarius of the Kinghts of Valour stood as the governor sat down. "Our scouts have found evidence to suggest that the Orks may attempt to drop their ships from orbit onto the planet's surface. You will remember how this was also done at Armageddon. Although this Warboss has few Roks remaining, his mechboyz have found a way to detach part of the space hulk. It is this part that will fall to the surface and it will fall near the capital, perhaps even on top of it." Renewed murmuring broke out with many Imperial army commanders whispering uneasily amongst themselves. The chaplain waited for the whispering to die out before continuing.

"Their actions however also leave them exposed. While the space hulk is detaching part of itself, its shields will be lowered. That is when we will strike. We must destroy the space hulk while its shields are down. Should we succeed, the Ork waagh will soon disappear without a leader." Misato raised her hand. "Yes Admiral Katsuragi?"

"How much time will we have to prepare?"

"The Orks will begin officially begin operations in two days." Everyone understood what that meant. The Orks wouldn't wait till tomorrow. They would begin _today_.

"In that case I would like to request permission to leave the room and begin preparing my fleet. I think I know what I need to do."

"You have permission", said the space marine. Misato was about to leave the door when the planetary governor stopped her. Misato looked expectantly at the governor.

"Please remember that this is a co-ordinated mission. You are not doing this for your own pride admiral, but for the defence of the Imperium."

Misato nodded once before leaving the room.

* * *

Nob Nar'shuk was smashing his buggy's driver over the head. As a speed freak nob, he was expected to go as fast as possible and to stay at the front of his mob. His driver was failing however, having let him fall into second place. "Hurry up ya useless crud! I gotta stay in fron'!"

The driver responded and hit the gas. The nob laughed as his buggy zipped in front again and leapt over a hill. He could just see the supply train wreckage ahead of them. He also saw the muzzle of the crippled Chimaera flash as it fired its multilaser at his vehicle. The first shot glanced off but the next hit the buggy head on. The badly made vehicle didn't explode but fell to pieces instead. Of course with the buggy travelling at 100 kilometres an hour, anybody inside was guaranteed to be smashed to a pulp.

* * *

Mana quickly reloaded the batteries of the laser and retargeted the gun. Opening fire she annihilated another buggy along with all its occupants. As she waited for the cannon to cool down, she had a look at the incoming Orks and did a quick count of their numbers. The huge plumes of smoke and dust the Orks were throwing up made it difficult for her to see their numbers but she realised that, no matter how a good she was at shooting, she wasn't about to kill them all. Firing again at the Orks, she grimly held onto the hope that other Imperial forces would soon arrive.

* * *

Asuka looked carefully at the wrecked supply train. She had ordered her driver to go faster so that she would be able to look at the situation in peace. While Shinji was a commander and had done some impressive tactical operations, he just wasn't cut out for the job. Asuka considered Shinji to be over concerned with saving everyone without exception. He didn't understand that sometimes sacrifices had to be incurred for final victory. _Only in death does duty end. _

The Imperial tank fired again and as it did, Asuka looked at the incoming Orks. Asuka frowned. The fire was far too accurate for the tank's occupants to be normal guardsmen. Heck, whoever was shooting was almost as good as she was. Asuka considered her options. She could send in her forces right now and save the remaining defenders. But was it worth sending about 100 soldiers and risking all their lives just to save the few remaining survivors? No, it wasn't worth the risk.

The other option was to allow the survivors to be overrun and for the Orks to fall upon the abandoned supplies. Then using their mobility, her soldiers would surround the Orks and annihilate them in a set piece battle all for minimum casualties. Asuka wasn't troubled by the fact she had just signed the death warrants of the remaining survivors. Such things mattered little in Asuka's mind. Billions died in the name of the Emperor each day, what did one more person matter?

* * *

"We're just going to sit here and let them die!" Shinji was utterly shocked at Asuka's attitude. What kind of person just stands by and lets people die?

"We have to make sacrifices in war Shinji. Either that or we charge in there and risk all of us dying."

Shinji looked over at the supply train. The Orks had almost reached it despite having been cut down to half their original numbers. They had disembarked by their dozens and were moving in on foot. A volley of missiles flew at the tank; most of the projectiles missed but one got lucky and disabled the multi-laser. The Orks cheered at the sight of the tank having been disabled and started clambering over it to kill the crew. _Damn it all I'm not going to sit here and let this happen._

Asuka was about to give the command to fire all heavy weapons at the tank when Shinji screamed," CHARGE!" Asuka watched in disbelief as the Imperial guardsmen followed their leader as he charged towards the Orks. "Damned idiot, he's going to get himself killed." Asuka quickly changed her orders to destroy the Ork buggies. _At least they won't be able to chase the rest of us down. _As far as Asuka was concerned there was no way the guardsmen would survive. She was quite prepared to leave them to their fate.

* * *

Shinji was consumed by rage. He wasn't sure what it was at but he fuelled it towards destroying the Orks who were about to slaughter the men in the tank. _How could Asuka just let these brave men die? It's inhumane! _While his rage lent him courage and strength, it was also a curse. Shinji was blinded to the realities of the situation and while his charge was awe-inspiring and courageous, it was also blindly suicidal. The Orks nearest to them stopped trying to get to the crippled tank but instead aimed their shootas at the guardsmen running in. Although the Orks were horrible shooters, it's difficult to miss about a hundred men running straight at you. The guardsmen were cut down quickly and easily. Shinji barely noticed his comrades falling around him and leapt into the Orks.

Asuka watched the last of the buggies explode. Looking at the guardsmen, she considered what to do with them. Either she could just open fire on them and cut down the Orks with them or she could leave them to their fate. Asuka decided to leave the guardsmen. While she could have killed all the Orks easily considering the amount of firepower at her disposal, she also realised that the guardsmen were also some of the best she had ever seen. Asuka would give them the honour of dying in battle. She was about to give the order to move out when she noticed a sudden movement near the Imperial tank. A thin metallic blade had just appeared on the side of the tank. Asuka watched its progress as it cut a circle in the side of the tank. Then with incredible speed, the circle of metal was kicked out and a small figure jumped out of the hole and into the Ork mob. An instant after the figure leapt out, the tank exploded killing all the Orks on or around the tank. Asuka had only seen a Callidus temple assassin once before and she quickly gave orders to move in and support the guardsmen and the assassin. Asuka knew the loss of a few squads of guardsmen wouldn't matter a lot but if a Callidus temple assassin died there'd be hell to pay.

* * *

Mana quickly stabbed the nearest Ork near her before using her poison blades upon another victim. Using her neural shredder she quickly cut a swathe of Orks down. Following her path of destruction, she charged through the disorientated Orks towards the Imperial line. If she could reach the reinforcements, she'd be able to escape without difficulty. Between her and her salvation was at least a hundred Orks though. She had a tough battle ahead of her. Cutting off another Ork head, she watched the sisters militant charging down towards the Orks. As they made contact, the Ork line buckled and with renewed vigor, Mana continued to fight her way towards the Imperial line.

* * *

Shinji fought like mad against the Orks. His concentration was focused solely upon killing any Orks in-between him and the tank. As such he didn't realise that the tank was a smouldering wreck. Swinging his chainsword into his enemies arm, he was about to administer the finishing blow when the warboss slammed into him. The warboss was massive even by Ork standards. Standing at about three and a half metres tall, clad in mega armour and armed with a power claw and customised shootas, he was an incredible foe. Leering at Shinji, the warboss opened his mouth to speak when he was suddenly hit by a las shot. Shinji looked over and saw Touji blasting at the warboss with his hellgun. The warboss hardly seemed to care about the las fire and lumbered over to Touji.

"Touji! Look out!" Touji didn't react fast enough and was backhanded by the powerclaw. He flew a good three metres before landing heavily. He didn't get up. Shinji was about to charge the warboss and to avenge his friend when his rage was replaced by a new emotion.

A feminine figure clad in skintight clothing had just landed in front of him. Wielding a strange sword, it leapt at the warboss. The warboss dodged the blow and swung his powerclaw straight at the stranger. Shinji was barely able to watch her movements as she ducked under the blow and leapt backwards away from the Ork. Next second, a volley of bolter fire slammed in the warboss from behind. Growling in pain it turned around to meet the charge of Asuka as she swung her blessed weapon at the Ork. The power claw smashed into the holy weapon as both combatants refused to give way. Asuka grimaced as she was slowly overcome by the warboss's sheer strength. She was granted enough time to get away as the assassin fired her neural shredder. The Ork wasn't killed but the blow to the mind shocked it. Asuka quickly leapt out of the way and landed next to the assassin.

"I'm Mana. You?"

"Asuka. Lets kill this sucker." Asuka prepared to go into action when she noticed her second in command still lying down staring at them. "Get your ass into gear wimp! There's a battle raging on!" Without further ado Asuka charged at the warboss with Mana beside her.

The warboss parried Asuka's strike only to have his gun cut in half by Mana. Dropping the useless weapon, the Ork picked up a large axe nearby and swung it at Asuka. Although hit by the weapon, Asuka's armor held and she grabbed onto the weapon and yanked it out of the warboss's hand. Mana took advantage of the Ork's confusion at having been disarmed and cut of the Ork's power claw. The warboss roared in anger and slammed his fist into Mana. Mana didn't even have the chance to cry out, as she was knocked unconscious immediately by the force of the blow. Her action's had however left the warboss without any weapons to speak of and Asuka beheaded the Ork without further ado.

The Orks upon seeing their leader slain, decided to run for it. Unfortunately for them, they discovered their transports had been shot to pieces by the sister's weaponry. With nowhere to run, the Ork mob was quickly destroyed.

* * *

Misato found out to her disgust, that she would only be able to take half the available ships into combat. The rest were withheld because, "Of what may happen if we don't win". She had only a dozen or so destroyers, about 5 cruisers and3 battleships to use. Against the huge Ork fleet she doubted it was enough. While the space marine battlebarges of the three space marine chapters and their assorted escorts would be available, Misato still had her doubts about their eventual victory. An order was an order however and she began the task of manoeuvring her fleet into position.

She couldn't have known that reinforcements of the most unlikely kind would come to her aid.

* * *

Asuka looked over Mana's injuries. Mana had numerous scratches and bruises from barely dodged bullets and explosions not to mention the obvious fact she was knocked out. Asuka lamented, not for the first time, the fact that they had no medical personnel on hand. Out of the hundred odd soldiers they'd sent into the battle, only twenty of them were uninjured. About 40 had died during the battle and the rest were injured. Without medical treatment quickly however, half of those injured would die. Asuka had told her drivers to hit the gas and to rush towards the capital hive city but she knew it was a rather futile gesture. _I only hope that idiot realises what he did today. _

The idiot was presently attending to his friend. Touji was on the casualty list but thankfully he wasn't seriously injured, just a broken arm. Shinji fully realised what had happened and was remorseful.

"Shin-man look on the bright side. You saved those men's lives by charging the Orks."

"That's just it Touji. There were no men on the tank."

"Wait, whaddaya mean there were no men? We charged the Orks for no reason!"

Touji would have beat Shinji half to death at that moment, broken arm or not, if Asuka hadn't walked in at that very moment. She was able to restrain Touji without difficulty although one had to wonder whether it required the amount of force she used. While Touji rolled about in agony and mumbled incoherently, Asuka told both the guardsmen who exactly was on the tank and what happened.

"The person you saved was a Callidus temple assassin whose name is Mana Kirishima. She appears to be one of many assassins in this area looking for an Ork by the name of Orkimedes. I don't know how she got out there but we have to get her back to the hive city."

"So we sacrificed half our forces just to save one girl?"

"One assassin." Asuka sighed in frustration at the look of blankness on Shinji's face. She quickly told them who the assassins were, what they did, and why they were so important. She also threatened to kill them both should they ever tell anyone about this.

"I don't understand how one person could possibly be more valuable than a hundred soldiers."

"She's worth more to the imperium than a full company of guardsmen."

The group lapsed into silence at this statement. Shinji understood why Mana was important to the Imperium but he felt that he and every other person in the Imperium was of the same importance to the emperor. They, for the most part, had the same influence in the warp. Why should one person be more important?

"The hive city is in sight. Prepare to transfer wounded to the hospital."

* * *

A huge daemon made its presence known to the occupants of the planet killer. Screaming horribly, it swung its huge claws at the ship preparing to take it apart. Next second, it was torn apart and sent back into the immaterium. Abaddon grumbled at the 3rd disturbance in as many hours. It appeared that the repairs done to his ship weren't as finished as he would have liked. The warp shield generators were barely functioning and every now and then a powerful entity of the warp would smash its way in and try to take apart his ship. Abaddon was far stronger than any of the daemons and he easily took them apart with Drach'nyen and Horus's lightning claw. It was annoying however as the attacks came often and he had to rush around the sihp to wherever the next attack was at. Walking back to the bridge, he hoped there would be a lull long enough to allow him to talk to the saviour. While the saviour might have been honest in what he was saying, there was something fishy with the evangelions.

Arriving back on the bridge he found the saviour waiting patiently for him.

"You wanted a word Abaddon?"

"Yes, it's about the evas. Something doesn't add up."

"What's the matter?"

"You've told me that these evas have existed since the second millennia. Now I don't know how old the emperor, in fact I doubt anyone but the emperor knows, but I'm positive he would have heard about the damn things. So why hasn't he used them before now?"

The saviour waved his arm dismissively. "Because as far as the emperor is concerned they're related to chaos. And as we know, the emperor mistrusts anything that has even the slightest hint of chaos around it."

"Wait… you said the evas weren't created by chaos or had anything to do with the powers?"

"No they don't in fact but they do exert a very powerful warp influence."

"Explain"

"The evas seem to have a huge influence in the warp. They have a passive ability to create what I would call a pit or well in the warp, which draws everything towards it. The evas would supposedly have the same influence but from what I've seen, some seem to be stronger than others."

"Wait, wait, wait. I'm confused. If they do have such a large influence in the warp don't you think someone might have noticed?"

"No not really. They were on Terra for a long time; so long that everyone just took the weird warp effects there for granted. It's like the eye of terror. When it first appeared, then yes maybe you might be worried. But it's been there for 10 millennia now and no one could care more or less. We take it for granted that it exists."

"Then what about after Horus scattered them around the galaxy? Didn't anyone notice?"

"You have to remember that the greatest battle in human history had just occurred. When the warp was found to have changed extensively, people just assumed that the large amount of people, who had died, turned to chaos and the death of the emperor himself would have changed the warp. No one bothered to look into it so they took this explanation and accepted as hard fact."

_You are skilled at diplomacy my friend, anyone else would have said the emperor was dying. _Abaddon had one last question. "You said the evas would draw people to them. What does that mean?"

"Basically, it draws any creatures that have an influence in the warp towards them. As such, we can also say that the evas may well have caused many of the greatest wars in the last ten millennia. Armageddon may have an eva on it. The Cadian gate is almost certainly caused by an eva. I'm pretty sure with a little work we could find out approximate locations of all the evas."

"So why did you wait till now to contact me if you already knew where the evas were?"

"Because I wasn't sure. I know you have little patience Abaddon and if I wasn't absolutely positive on where the evas were, you wouldn't even bother trying to look for them."

The two stared into the immaterium. Another daemon smashed into the warp shields.

"Did you say that the evas may have influenced the cadian gate?"

"Yes."

"So the evas are powerful enough to make a dent into the eye of terror?"

"It would seem so."

_These evas are more dangerous than I thought them to be. Of course, if they are this powerful then so much the better for me._ Abaddon smiled as he imagined his conquest of the galaxy. 

A hive city is always a glum place to live in. Created solely for the purpose of producing materials for the imperium, the hive city pays little attention to comforts. Built over many centuries, a hive city is often many miles deep and only the gangs that roam the depths beneath the city know all the routes by heart. On the surface, millions of people toil everyday to produce the material and weaponry needed by the armies to hold back the enemies of the imperium.

Shinji never actually grew up in a hive city; his father was formerly a governor of a planet and preferred to live away from the city and in the countryside. It was possible to see the hive city from the country house but only as a large black mass on the horizon. Seeing one up close and personal wasn't a pleasant sight. Numerous refugees fleeing from the Ork onslaught had sought refuge in the hive city and there simply wasn't enough housing for everyone. As the armoured column trundled through the streets, Shinji looked at the numerous refugees on the roadside. While he understood there weren't enough homes to accommodate for everyone, he still wished something could be done for the refugees.

By contrast, the barracks of the city was looking brand new. The walls didn't have any sign of wear on them and numerous soldiers in new uniforms patrolled the gates. Even the hastily erected anti-air defences were looking as though they'd always been there. In short order, they arrived at the medical facilities of the barracks. Shinji was about to hop off and help unloading the casualties when Asuka stopped him.

"Shinji could you take Mana in personally? I need to head to the command post to give my report."

Shinji nodded and walked over to the rhino where the assassin was recovering. Asuka walked off towards the headquarters but before she disappeared from Shinji's view she turned around and called out, "Don't let too many people see the assassin and look for Sister Horaki!" then she was gone.

Shinji was confused. If Asuka wanted to keep the assassin's identity a secret then she certainly wasn't doing a good job at it. By shouting out what she wanted she had probably alerted the whole base that there was one in the area. Shrugging it off, Shinji picked up Mana and carried her towards the hospital. He was surprised by how light the assassin was. While he knew from her figure she couldn't have weighed much, she didn't seem to weigh anything at all. And speaking of her figure…Shinji suddenly understood why Asuka wanted him to try and keep Mana hidden. It's not often guardsmen see a women during their service and seeing the body of a Callidus temple assassin, made near perfect by nature then made perfect by polymorphine, was guaranteed to catch their eye.

Shinji found himself slightly unnerved by the number of people looking his way. He suddenly understood why Asuka had told him to keep the assassin out of sight. He started sprinting for the hospital door.

Once inside things didn't improve. Shinji could've sworn there were more people in here than there were out there. He wouldn't have been wrong. Continuos fighting across the planet's surface had destroyed entire companies of guardsmen. The survivors, if there were any, were being shipped out of the system. The Ork blockade however, meant that few ships were able to escape the area. The soldiers who couldn't escape and were unfit for duty were thrown into the hospital. The hospital was filled beyond capacity and many of the wounded were attended to in the corridors.

Shinji ignored all this and started pushing his way through the crowd. Asuka had told him to find one sister Horaki and how hard could it have been to find a sister of battle amongst this lot?

* * *

Asuka stepped into the main operations room only to be shoved out again by a junior officer carrying an armful of paper. Before Asuka could even vent her anger, the officer had disappeared around the corner. Asuka blinked in surprise before walking into the op room.

The op room was a rough equivalent for sheer and utter chaos. Maps and troop deployment sheets were scattered everywhere and numerous people were running everywhere carrying even more sheets of information. Shoving and at times punching her way to the middle of the room, she eventually found Commissar Zanaris, the head of all ground operations on the planet. Asuka gave a quick salute and was about to hand in her report when the commissar got his words in first.

"Not now canoness, I understand you have to hand in your report but I'm sure that can wait." The aged man sighed as her rubbed his temples before continuing to speak. "There's a major problem going on."

"What's the matter commissar?" Asuka was in reality the exact same rank as the commissar and therefore addressed him as such. While she would've normally complained about not being in charge of everything, Asuka understood that the commissar in question had the respect of the planetary defence forces as well as an intimate knowledge of the planet's geography and defence system, and so Asuka deferred ultimate command of the planet's defences to him and instead remained in command of her personal group of sisters.

"Do you know about the Ork roks and their ability to drop onto planets from orbit?"

"Yes. Wait… the Orks are planning to do that here?"

"A variation, our Orks will instead use part of their space hulk. The Navy is going to try their best to destroy the ship before it lands but the odds are not in our favour. Should they fail, we will need to attack and destroy the fortress. Because of our lack of artillery and heavy weapons, our only option is to mount a raid on the fortress and set explosives at key points. While we can't destroy it, we can make it uninhabitable by taking out the power plants and food stores."

Asuka doubted the plan would work. Having no food had rarely ever stopped an Ork. The damned aliens seemed to thrive on destruction. _Only this time, it'll be their destruction not ours._ "Do you want me to lead the raid?"

The commissar looked up from his maps and stared Asuka in the eyes. "Is that what you want Canoness?"

Asuka instantly replied, "Yes, that is what I want. How much time do I have to prepare?"

Before commissar Zanaris could reply a radio operator thrust a sheet of paper into his hand. Reading the only sentence on it, Zanaris then put the paper down before looking up at Asuka. "None. Your operation begins now."

* * *

Misato manoeuvred her fleet from behind a screen of debris. She watched as the space hulk dropped its shielding. Every Ork ship around the planet had been called forth and had formed a protective barrier around the hulk.

"Tell our ships to begin their attack run. Fire everything at the space hulk and prevent it from launching the fortress. Tell all our main ships to use their nova cannons to blast a hole in the protective screen."

The massive Imperial battleships slowly turned towards the Ork fleet while the more nimble destroyers and cruisers spread out before beginning their attack run. Sensing the danger posed to their hulk, numerous Ork ships turned to face the Imperial navy. Misato could see small twinkles as the Orks opened fire at them. Not that she really cared, protected as she was by dozens of metres of armour plating. Besides, their little weapons were nothing compared to a Nova cannon.

"All battleships are in position. Permission to open fire?"

"Permission granted."

Although there were only 3 battleships in the navy, their Nova cannons more than made up for that. The battleships themselves were jerked backwards as their cannons fired. Three massive shells made their way towards the Ork fleet that didn't seem to realise their fate or were completely ignoring it. As the Imperial cruisers and destroyers began to fire their lances and missiles at Orks three things happened, each spectacular on their own but put together made Misato think she must have been drunk.

Misato had expected a massive explosion to engulf the smaller Ork ships. A third of the Ork force was annihilated in a matter of seconds by the Nova cannons shells. What she _didn't_ expect was a massive rip to open in real space leading into the warp. It had appeared with exact precision so as to pin the Ork force against the planet. Nothing was coming out of it but whatever that hole meant it couldn't have been good. The last thing that happened was a faint shimmering on the other side of the Ork force.

"Someone get a zoom on that shimmering over there." Misato couldn't see anything clearly over there but something was definitely blocking her view of the stars. On her main screen a magnified image appeared. Misato looked intently at the screen before suddenly going pale. Although she'd never seen a Necron ship before, she'd read about them back in navy school. Out of hundreds of engagements around the galaxy, only in a few dozen had the Necrons ever lost.

The last thing to complete the picture was when the Chaos war fleet re-emerged out of the warp. Misato looked at the situation in front of her and decided to do the only rational course of action available to her.

"Someone get me a damn beer."

* * *

Definitions and terms.

Commissars: These men are fanatically devoted to the Emperor and most of them are blind to the real situation. Some commissars go on to become incredible commanders such as Commissar Yarrick. For the most part however, these men are designated to the ranks and discourage cowardice in the common soldiery.

Nova cannons: This massive cannons are mounted only on the largest Imperial ships. Their rounds are at least a hundred metres long and when they explode, they are guaranteed to cut the heart out of an enemy force. They take time to get to their destination though because they are only shells. As such, a particularly agile ship may be able to dodge the shot.

Daemons: Physical manifestations of the worst traits of the races of the galaxy, most daemons are tied to one of the four chaos powers. Occasionally a great daemon may be able to call upon all the four great chaos powers to support him but this is rare. Many daemons hold grudges against people because of various actions they have dealt against them. Daemons don't die so these grudges may exist for millennia.

Review please?


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